Welcome to the blog! Just felt like introducing it to you today. Before diving into the article, I’d like to mention that this article stems from a few incidents that have occurred recently. There’s a certain stigma attached to repetition and this article aims to dispel it.
Being Nigerian means I’ve experienced certain things, one of which includes repetition. Although not personally, I had friends who had to repeat a class. For unknown reasons, people would imply being dull as the major reason for repeating.
How untrue! Repeating may come about because there’s a certain lesson you are yet to learn from that class. What exactly is repetition? According to Cambridge Dictionary, Repetition means the act of doing or saying something again.
Not quite long ago, I learnt that Repetition happens only when you don’t learn a particular lesson from a situation. Although the exact situation may not be re-enacted, similar situations will come up for you to learn that lesson.
Repeating the class once more
My friend recently did something that offended me. Once I got wind of it, I began to think of how to deal with it. After thinking on it, I decided to share this little insight with him. I’ll share the same with you as well today.
There’s a class I’ve repeated for the last 3 years. Until February, I didn’t even know I was repeating the class. What is the class? Conflict resolution. Whenever someone offends me, I don’t let them know but I think it over until I explode. In that explosion, I return to the person and tell them their life story literally.
Looking back now, God needed me to learn that lesson. Now, I don’t do that anymore, if someone offends me, I don’t go silent. I speak about it immediately or give the person some space, but not as long as before.
There’s no longer room for malice or silence treatment; the conflict has to be resolved quickly. No space for bitterness, hatred or un-forgiveness.
After sharing the story, I could talk about the offence and how it hurt me. If I didn’t realize that I was repeating a class, it would have been similar to the past scenarios. There would be no reconciliation at all.
This is one of the few instances that I’ve seen the importance of repeating.
Biblical repetition and its importance
When you read the Bible, do you ever see stories or scenarios that are repeated multiple times? For instance, the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John contain the same stories from different perspectives.
If we didn’t need all the various perspectives, then the Bible wouldn’t repeat them.
In the book of Joshua chapter 1 vs. 6, you and I read that God told Joshua to be strong and of good courage. Vs. 9 records God saying to Joshua, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage.
God had to repeat what He told Joshua initially, so he wouldn’t forget and he’ll put fear away. Yet another instance of repetition represented in the Bible.
There are so many instances where you can find repetition in your life. Instead of frowning on them, embrace them as learning curves. You may have failed previously in an exam or a grade, doing it again doesn’t mean you’re dumb or unfit for the next class.
You just need to learn a key lesson before you can move to the next step. Also, don’t be bothered that you aren’t going at the same pace as the ones you started with. We all have different journeys, take advantage of the detours and repetitions.
Previous article: How yielding are you willing to be? If you’ve never heard about Jesus, please read this article.
2 responses
I really like your perspective on repetition. A lot of times to me, it seems negative and like a setback, but it’s a gift to be able to re-learn the things we didn’t learn the first time. I also liked how you tied it to the bible, God repeats a lot of things to people, in His word and in our lives today. And learning in general requires repetition! Great post Funmi!!
Thank you for reading Seyi!! I love interacting with your comments and Thank you for always leaving a comment. They mean a lot.