Consistent

This word rambles about inside my head. In some ways it defines me--I consistently read my friends' blogs, pay bills on time, get health check-ups, and more often than not, sleep at least eight hours a night. In other ways, this idea of being consistent seems elusive because I'm not consistent in all areas in my life, though I long to be

Consistent with exercising.
Consistent with eating healthy foods.
Consistent with writing well and writing on a regular basis.
Consistent with keeping in touch with friends.
Consistent with staying in the Word.
Consistent with growing in my relationship with God.
Consistent with loving others who seem difficult to love.
Consistent with turning a deaf ear to gossip.

On a daily basis, I make choices that frustrate my attempt to be consistent in these areas of my life. I simply walk off the path that I need to be on, failing to recognize my wandering choices until after the fact. Remarkably, I usually get back on the right path within a short time. But I seem to beat myself up for all the little slip-ups along the way that result in my being inconsistent. At that point, I want to toss out the concept of being consistent and just do as I please. But I don't.

Maybe because God's Word says,

So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16, The Message)

There's no requirement that I be perfect. Instead, it's incumbent upon me to not give up. To press on, allowing God to change me in and through the process. And when I have cause to doubt, I need only look at the truly consistent things in this life: God's unconditional love for me and how He has allowed me to experience that love through my family.