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Consistency is part of God’s character. It’s part of what defines Him as God. His attributes don’t change over time. He is who He is consistently.

Now if you look in your concordance you won’t find the word “consistent” very much. You’ll find the word “faithful” and other phrases that involve the word “change.” James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

That means we don’t ever have to wonder if we’re catching God on a good day. You’ll never hear Him say, “Man, I would have loved to have heard that prayer, but with everything that’s going on in the world, I just didn’t have the time or patience for you. Compared to that, your wimpy problem just sounds like whining today. I’m on my last nerve and you’re currently standing on it. Sorry.”

No. “I the Lord do not change,” says Malachi 3:6.

My mom and dad both exhibited this quality, but I had no appreciation for it when I was growing up. I wouldn’t have labeled them consistent; I would have labeled them boring. They just kept doing the same thing.

When the kids were older and we needed money for school, my mother worked with medical records in a doctor’s office and managed to get home and have a meal on the table at 5 p.m. Not at 4:45 or 5:15, but 5 p.m. central time. It just was there.

I didn’t realize what a challenge it is to do that on a nightly basis because it was always there. We rarely went out to eat. When we did go out to eat, we drove to Toluca about 30 miles away. There were perfectly good restaurants in our town, but the food in Toluca was a bargain. We always went to one restaurant where the pasta was the best, and my parents always ordered the same thing. Mom would stare at the menu for 15 minutes like there was a decision to be made, and then she would announce to Dad, “I think I’m going to go with . . .” We yawned.

And Dad got up the same time every morning and went to work. He hung his sport coat in the same place on the same hook in the same car for most of those years. He didn’t switch cars, even when he got a better job. He stuck with the same one. And I don’t remember him ever missing a day of work. He never took a sick day in 36 years at one company.

For our vacation, we would go on essentially the same trip every year. We’d stay at aunts’ and uncles’ farms in Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska. And we’d work our tails off. When someone at school asked what I did on summer vacation, I’d say, “I worked.” One teacher actually sent a note home to my parents one year. She was not pleased. “You might want to expose your kids to some of the great national parks and historic sites around our country,” the note said, but it had no effect. Shirley and Leroy’s farm was enough history for my parents.

My point isn’t to extol the virtues of monotony. Consistency looks different in every family, and what is consistent to some may be painfully boring to others. The point is that when a family’s life is filled with some reliable constants, it creates a secure environment and models important messages about dependability and faithfulness. That’s especially true when the parents’ character is among those constants.

It has been said that God’s behavior may be unpredictable, but His character certainly isn’t. He is always the same. And blessed are those children who see a visible picture of God’s consistency in the form of their parents.

This message is from Phil Tuttle.