Some promises cannot be kept due to circumstances beyond our control, like rain on the day of the picnic or a sudden emergency that demands our attention. Those occasions can be used to explain the difference between breaking promises and being hindered by circumstances from doing what we want to do. Life is filled with disappointments, and our children must learn how to cope with them very early in life. Our gentle spirit at such times will help. But nothing can take the place of a child's inner confidence that his parent's word can be trusted.
Consistency means fairness too.
Our children each have different personalities and different degrees of maturity, so exactly the same rules and methods of discipline may not always apply to every child. But we need to be as uniform as we possibly can. I can still hear the plaintive cry of several young people with whom I have counseled who were sure their parents didn't care for them. The standards set for them were different from those set for their brothers or sisters, and the discipline they received was far more severe. We devoted an entire chapter to love for our children, but a brief word needs to be repeated in this context of discipline.