…put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3:14

I’ve discovered that there’s a certain level of tidiness that I need to feel peaceful and calm in my home. Unfortunately it’s not shared by the rest of my family! One day, after I’d had a good session of tidying up and putting things in piles, my young son, looking slightly baffled, said, “Daddy, mummy’s not like the rest of us is she?” He’s quite right!

My husband and I are opposites in many ways. At times it’s funny, at times it’s great, but on other occasions it can be challenging. We’ve had to learn how to communicate in ways that the other understands. I’m learning how to be more spontaneous, he’s learning how to work within the rhythms of family life. At times, we’ve had to ‘put on love’ and do things differently to what would come naturally to us. It takes time to work out how two separate lives become one, intertwined and woven together. Luckily we have a lifetime to figure it out. But as we love each other and chose to act lovingly to each other – even at times when we may not feel like it – our lives become more and more united and bound together and we are the richer for it.

Emma Whittall works in a pre-school in Stockholm, is a children’s worker, church planter, wife & mother. These devotionals were first published in Swedish as part of Andaktsboken för mammor år 2

Photo by kirstyhall