Consistency v. Rigidity

Today on my walk I was thinking about consistency, about the value of consistency, and how tiny bits and pieces of things done consistently bear so much fruit over time. 

I have seen this in so many realms, including:

*Finn's piano education.  Daily (or nearly-daily) practice for 6 years.  He plays so beautifully now. 

*Exercise: when I just decided to be consistent with exercise instead of heroic, I got into excellent shape!

*Keeping house: obviously staying on top of laundry and dishes, but also consistently tidying the house each day--so there's never a big mess (exceptions: the garage and the mechanical room!)

*Reading to my children: just a chapter a day, over time, adds up to so much reading.  I read a chapter from the Bible at breakfast and a chapter from a fiction book at lunch, and try to read close to a chapter of another fiction book at bedtime. Little bits and pieces, but they do add up.

*Saving money.  Just save it, set it aside....time will make it grow....

But it's funny, because I was not raised in a household that really valued consistency.  In fact, I think the primary guiding factor of my childhood was whim. This was fun in a way, but ultimately was quite difficult for me because (I now know) I am a person who prefers predictability and routine.  But for the first three decades or more of my life, I confused consistency with rigidity, and thus rejected the idea of being consistent, because I equated it with being too rigid.

Rigidity is different: it says  we always or we never and doesn't make any allowances for circumstances.  Rigidity is legalistic.  Rigidity is powering through a to-do list when really what you need is a good nap.  Rigidity makes no concessions.  Rigidity doesn't allow a child to pull out the Legos because This is When We Do Math.  And I really do not like this mindset!  So in my quest to avoid rigidity, I didn't value consistency nearly enough.

Truly, though: consistency and strong habits are what make life sweet.  

Consistency says we usually or we sometimes.  Consistency considers the circumstances and uses good judgment to determine how to proceed.  Consistency is gracious.  Consistency says the nap will benefit me more than crossing things off this list.  Consistency looks at the Big Picture and decides to let the child play with Legos, and do math later, because childhood is fleeting, and Legos are creative, and the schedule can be a little flexible.  The math still gets done, the to-do list is still crossed off, but there's flexibility and rationality in implementation. 

So I think that developing consistent, reasonable routines around the most important priorities in our lives makes good sense.  

I imagine that people raised in a more consistent setting than my own childhood home will not see the contrast between consistency and rigidity as particularly revelatory.  But I sure did!