The who is the most important part of the whole.

It’s not about being whole one way or another, it’s about considering our who. Each one of us in this family is a different who. And each one of us has a different way of being in the world and a different way they need to be as themselves. It’s not so much about just not conforming with expectations or even confronting the assumptions about how we are going to educate our kids, or structure our family time, or make decisions about what is important.

It’s about letting the who of who we are inform the whole of who we are.

Instead of starting with a vision of how our family should look, it’s starting with the consideration of how our people are and building from there.

The choices we make about education, free time, family life and structure need to be such that they support our family as much as possible.

It’s about choosing to look at how we were created and than choosing how to be, instead of the other way around.

The ‘who’s in our family matter more than what it looks like or how it seems.

I often tell my kiddos “different families do different things.” A version of something I picked up from my mom.

Just recently I’ve heard my five year old start saying it.

And I’m glad.

Because different families do different things. Each of our different choices is not better or worse than anyone else’s, it’s just different.

We’re all different, so we need different things and what is most healthy for our family will look completely different from what is best for another family.

Different things, different choices, different people.

We are each an individual who, and that is important.

For today’s post i’m also linking up with Five Minute Friday. with the prompt ‘who’. Follow the link for more info or to read more five minute free-writes.

This month I am joining the #write31days community to explore the idea of the Whole Together Family because I believe we get be who God created us to be – together. Find the whole list posts here or click on the image.