Skip to main content

Who Is My Neighbor?

 


"When Jesus said 'Love your neighbor', He knew
your neighbor would act, look, believe and love 
differently than you.  It's kinda the whole point."
~ Toby Mac, Christian artist

Ever have a day?  Like, I mean,  A. DAY.  Somebody slammed on their brakes and my beautifully engineered ever-so-safe car slammed on its' brakes automatically and my pot of soup I was taking to someone went flying off the front seat and all over my car.  Of course it was the best vegetable soup I'd ever made too.  Argh.


Isn't that just the way it goes? Our best efforts get sabotaged, or at least our attitudes and joy do.  Sometimes our intentions are so noble, and yet it goes so badly.  I kind of look at that as Satan just trying to kill my joy and get me to grow weary of doing good.  Not today, Satan.  

"Let us not become weary of doing what is good.  At just the right
time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up." Gal 6:9

As we enter the holiday season, there are sooooo many opportunities to do good.  I have recently been the recipient of some very thoughtful people and it really made me feel valued.  It spurs me on to that kind of neighborly action because it meant so much to me.

I think that's part of what Jesus meant when He said to love your neighbor in Mark 12:31 and Matthew 22:39.

There's so many ways to love my neighbor, especially this time of year.  

  • Making big batches of cookies or loaves of quick bread and splitting them up into smaller bags takes very little effort.  You can keep them in the freezer.
  • Adding a few of those specialties to your car bags for homeless people can really spread holiday joy.  
  • Have a card-making or card-sending gathering with kids or grandkids.  If crafts aren't your thing, pre-buy some at the dollar store - they're really cheap.
  • have a little basket of small dollar item gifts as a backup to take to people's houses or for those guests that just drop by

Then there's the every-day interactions that just place others first- little things like holding doors, letting people in your lane, letting someone have a closer parking spot, texting someone to just say hi or check in on them.


Those are the easy ones.  What about the not-so-easy ones?  What if we ask God to lead us to someone who may be challenging for us to love on as neighbors and see if His light can shine through us to brighten their day a little?



It's not about us, it's about them.  And it's not about whether or not they respond, or how they respond.  We only have control over our actions and our obedience.  

Going about our day with a mentality of Philippians 2 creates so many opportunities for us to love our neighbor, regardless of whether we are loved back or not.

It cultivates in us a heart of gratitude for what Jesus did for us all year round, not just Thanksgiving.  What ways can we love our neighbor?  Happy Thanksgiving week 🦃

Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for You-that You would even think of us, let alone send Your only Son to die for each of our sins.  Please renew our hearts and minds this week and help us to see all the opportunities You place in our way to love our neighbors, out of gratitude for how much You love us.  Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Knocking on Heaven's Door

  "Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal." ~ Troy Ramey, artist My mom knocked on heaven's door this week, and was let in.  She had lived 94 years on this earth- through the Great Depression, tragedy, and a host of health issues- but plodded on with feistiness and a sense of humor. My mourning wasn't the only woe being experienced this week- miscarriages, mental illness, broken family relationships, fear of uncertainty - all woes this broken world has handed out to people I love.  And the prince of this world loves to throw them at us relentlessly.  Lord, how do we endure? How do we fight back the tendency to grow tired of it and let it rob us of our  joy? We ask God to give us the fruit of self-control and guard our minds.    "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."...
2 comments
Read more

Oh The Places You'll Go!

  Reading of "Oh The Places You'll Go  "Congratulations!  Today is your day!  You're off to great places!  You're off and away!  ~ Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess It's that time of year - hundreds of thousands are graduating from preschool through college and Dr. Seuss wrote a primary book that applies to each one of these levels - it's really quite genius. 🎓  Touching on some of the conceptual highlights, as always we sift them through God's Word... 🎓  "You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes" - "So prepare your minds for actions and exercise self-control.  Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world."  1 Pet 1:13 🎓  "You can steer yourself any direction you choose"; avoid the 'not so good street'.  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.  Seek His will in all you do, and He will s...
1 comment
Read more

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

  🍂  A TRUE FRIEND ACCEPTS WHO YOU ARE, BUT ALSO HELPS YOU BECOME WHO YOU SHOULD BE ~ unknown small thing #3 - a friend in need is a friend indeed   🍂  I'm not what you would call a 'touchy feely person'; I'm more of a taskmaster.  I make lists about things I've already done to see them in a list. I think in bullets, I am direct, and an extrovert most of the time. I sometimes just say what others are thinking.   I am a "one" on the personality enneagram I'm told (I'm sure that's going to cause some of you enneagram experts to put me in a particular profile box) but I am probably better fit for a bag that changes forms.  I want to constantly be changing and redefining myself (for the better I hope).  So the fact that I said I am a one and I want to change should show I can't be defined.  Except I'm constantly critical of myself - oh wait - that's what a "one" is. Here's one Enneagram chart I found:           ...
11 comments
Read more