I have been thinking about neighbors a lot lately. We are blessed with some of the best neighbors a person could wish for. But though I love the ones that I know there are still a lot of people on our street that I do not know and some I haven't even met. I would like to change that. That is one of my goals for this year that I can make some measurable progress in getting to know and showing love to my neighbors.
I have been thinking about some Bible verses about neighbors and figured I would share some with you. While I realize that the Bible clearly teaches that our neighbor isn't just the people that live next door or in our neighborhood - it is whoever should cross our path - I still think that our physical neighborhood is not a bad place to start as we try to follow these verses....
Romans 15:2
"Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. "
Proverbs 27:10 and 14
"Do not forsake your friend and the friend of you father, and do not go to your brother's house when disaster strikes you - better a neighbor nearby than a brother far away."
"If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse."
Matthew 19:17-19
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments." "Which ones ?" the man inquired. Jesus replied, "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself."
Romans 13:9 and 10
"The commandments, "Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet" and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule; "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law."
Galatians 5:14
"The entire law is summed up in a single command; " Love your neighbor as yourself."
It is my desire to truly get to know my neighbors better this year.
Why do I want to know my neighbors?
- So I can truly love them the way the Bible says I should.
- So I can share the gospel with them.
- Because it is fun.
- Because it is very helpful to know your neighbors - to be able to help and share with them and they do the same for you. For the neighbors we do know and have known through the years this is truly a wonderful thing.
- For safety's sake. If we know each other and a little of what is going on in each other's lives we could see and prevent a break-in or something like that. Also in emergency situations of various sorts it can be super helpful to know your neighbors and be able to help each other.
What is my plan for getting to know them?
- I am hoping to host a neighborhood party this summer. We will probably see if our super sweet next door neighbors want to co-host with us.
- When we have the party I plan on hand delivering the invitations and trying to meet people in the process.
- I hope to have our neighborhood party early enough the we can then afterwards invite them to come to our 4th of July party as well.
- I am thinking that maybe we will do May Day baskets for the whole neighborhood this year.
- Inviting people that we do meet and feel at ease with over for a meal on a more one on one basis. I especially have the goal of making that happen with our next door (seasonal) neighbors on the other side (on the one side we have gone back and forth quite a bit.)
I am looking for more ideas on how to get to know and develop deeper relationships with your neighbors. If you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments!
Some things we've been doing with the neighbours on one side (who are an older couple 76 years old) is doing things like they were leaving on a long trip so I went over to say goodbye and hoped they had a good trip. Just rang the doorbell since I knew they were leaving the next day. We had extra beans in the garden so we shared some. Same could be done with flowers. I always stop and chat for a few minutes if I see them outside I go over and say hello, or at least wave and say hi if I don't have time. That kind of thing. The other side the neighbours are much harder. They are barely ever home. When I do see them I say hello but it doesn't go much farther. Across the street I sometimes go over and chat if I see the Mom sitting out on a nice day or shovelling. My kids are friends with hers so that helps. A lot of people just aren't around in my neighbourhood. There is a lot of double income shift workers with kids in school and daycare. When someone new moves into the neighbourhood when we see them outside we stop to say hello. Same with people who walk by regularly- those are mostly the retired people who walk dogs I always say hi and think of something to say. Oh another thing we've done is sharing berries with them when we go berry picking. Offering to look after their house or shovel when they are away. Another idea I'd like to do if I hear someone is sick or grieving is give cards (kids can even draw homemade ones). Our neighbourhood also lets each other know if there is a bear in the area. We knock on doors or exchange phone #'s for this purpose. Just so everyone is aware. I'd like to get better at knowing my neighbours better too. I'm actually looking forward to my neighbours on the one side finishing their trip and coming home this spring. They are missed.
ReplyDeleteSO many good ideas!! We live on a street that has quiet a few older people. Only two other couples have children so we have such an old feel to our little part of the neighborhood! Everyone comes out on nice evenings and we sit on porches and talk. Our neighbors on both sides are in the 80s so Mark shovels snow or does yard work for them and in turn they bring us cookies and tell us wonderful stories. I am so thankful for this sense of community. We have actually *not* done as good of a job getting to know the families with children since they are at work/school/daycare all day. Your post has made me think about ways to reach out to them soon!
ReplyDeleteNola, Thanks for sharing all the things that you are doing and have done. I love it! The bear alert system is especially cool! :-) Your elderly neighbor relationship sounds so much like ours - it is so fun! We live quite a ways back from the road so I feel like we miss some opportunities because we don't get to see neighbors walking by and stuff like that but we do have narrow lots so we can see our next door neighbors and the ones past across lawns. We do also have the river where we can sometimes chat with neighbors going by.
ReplyDeleteAmy, We can totally relate with having largely elderly neighbors but that is cool too. Thanks for sharing things that you have done and are doing!
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Thank you, Kevin.
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