Women’s Devotion: Harmony

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Col. 3:14

For years I have struggled with finding balance in my life. Balancing work life and home life, balancing time to devote to family and friend relationships, balancing time spent with God and time working for God. Balancing all of my blessings so that I could truly enjoy the life I’ve been blessed with seemed like a noble, albeit allusive, venture.

A few months ago a dear friend gave me a birthday card encouraging me to choose a word to live out for my new year of life. I struggled a bit with this challenge but again “balance” came to mind often. I devoted an evening to exploring this word in Scripture and discovered that every reference to balance referred to things being weighed. That wasn’t what I wanted in a guiding word.

Then a new word came a few days later in a conversation with a spiritual mentor when she passed along this profound writing to me: “Seek harmony, not balance. The idea of balance has never been useful to me, as if I could cut my life into pieces and measure their worth on a scale. At the same time, whenever I have tried to “lean in,” I’ve fallen down. I want to stand up straight, grounded in the earth, and pour out my love into my spouse, children, friends, family , and the communities I serve. I want to gauge my success by how well I have loved. I don’t want balance. I want harmony.” And there was my word for the year. Every time I find the word “harmony” in Scripture it refers to a kind of life I want. Writer Valerie Kaur ends her writing with these words “I want to let my life flare up. I want to let my life sing. I want to hear your life sing. Because everyone’s song is a symphony.”

God of perfect harmony, show me how to let my life reflect and echo your love song in all I do. Amen.

This month’s devotion is written by Kathy Paisley, a member of the Women’s Ministry Team.