A Word About Repetition

If we meet on a street corner sometime, and you’ve been struggling with a particular math problem, and you ask me for help, if your question has to do with the multiplication tables, I’m your man. I can help you. I know what 6×7 is. It’s 42. And 3×4 is 12. And 5×5 is 25. I even know bigger numbers, like 12×12. (It’s a hundred-forty four.) I know all those facts by heart. I memorized my multiplication tables in Third grade. My teacher, Miss Chriss was relentless. Over and over in our class, we had to recite our multiplication tables, on her command.

“Kenny Jones,” she would say, “please stand and say your sevens.” I knew what that meant. I would have to stand, in front of the entire class, and begin: “Seven times one is seven. Seven times two is fourteen. Seven times three is twenty-one.” I’d have to keep that mantra going all the way through 7×12. (It’s 84, by the way.) And if I stumbled along the way, if she asked me to say my nines, for example, and I didn’t know all my nines, she’d ask the class to help me. “Class, can you help Kenny? What is 9×8?” 

And together in unison they would shame me into remembering that nine times eight is seventy-two. I hated having to recite my multiplication tables. But the only way I could master remembering my multiplication tables was repetition. Over and over until I could recite them in my sleep.

I have come to believe that the concept of repetition is perhaps one of the most significant elements of a human life. What we practice, over and over. What we tell ourselves, over and over. And yes, what we hear over and over — becomes a part of who we are. The very fabric and fiber of our lives takes its shape because of what we practice, what we repeat over and over again.

God knows that, of course. That’s why there’s so much repetition in the book of Proverbs. In the next few segments of Classic State of Mind, I’ll share some thoughts on repetition from that wise book of Proverbs. But for now, here’s one thought I will leave you with about God and repetition: Proverbs repeats many of the same themes over and over. Things like Listening. Words. Wisdom. Fear of the Lord. Work. Humility. Paths and choices. Not once. Not twice. But often. As if God knows we might hear it one day and forget it the next. As if He knows we might forget one phrasing, but worded different, it might finally land.

There is no public shaming in Proverbs. No calling us out in front of some class. Just truth offered again. And again. And again. Often from another angle, so we could see it on another day, perhaps at another stage of life.

If you find yourself hearing the same truth in Scripture, or life, or prayer, it may not be because you failed to learn it the first time. It may just be because God is still reciting truth for you so it can become part of the fabric of who you are.

The quiet grace of repetition. 

I’m Ken Jones. You can find all our previous segments of Classic State of Mind on our website: ClassicStateofMind.com