During a very busy week, my husband asked me to do a couple of things. They were simple things, but I put them off for what I felt were valid reasons.

Then I noticed that very day, when he came home from work, he would ask me if I had done them. This began to bother me. One day as I thought about my list of things to do, these tasks seemed especially inconvenient. "But," I said to myself, "I'd better do them to get them off my back."

A moment later, I remembered the Word of Life we were trying to live out, “But now we must celebrate and rejoice..."(Lk 15:32) about the Prodigal Son, and how the "good son" seemed to act only out of duty or obligation to his father.

I immediately changed my attitude and said, "I will do these things out of love for my husband."

I completed both items that day, and when one errand took me near a church, I even stopped to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. When my husband came home, we were both happy and in unity.

G.G., Texas

Published with permission from Living City April 2012, the Focolare Movement's monthly magazine of religion, dialogue and culture | www.livingcitymagazine.com