Whether you have lived in your neighborhood for 10 years or 10 months, you may not know your neighbors very well at all. It's a pity.
I've found that people are lonely. I've been that person who is lonely. And one thing that's helped me with my feelings of isolation as well as helping me discover that others share those same feelings, is taking the plunge and inviting the neighborhood for coffee.
It's a wide net to invite the whole neighborhood and not everyone says "yes," either because they can't make it or they don't feel comfortable. I can relate to that. I don't always feel comfortable doing the inviting, but I've experienced the rewards of a stranger becoming an acquaintance and an acquaintance becoming a friend.
THE WHY BEHIND LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR
When did it become okay to accept this isolation and the seemingly univeral understanding that it's okay to wave to someone without actually knowing their name? (As well as the horrifying realization that at one point you did ask their name but have no idea what that name was nor which house it belonged to.)
Jesus was asked, "'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself'" (Matthew 22:36-39).
To love our neighbor is on par with loving God, according to Jesus. And even those who don't purport to know or believe in God still understand the value of good old-fashioned neighborliness. We're polite people, in the main, but we allow or even erect invisible borders that keep us from loving our neighbors well.
A FEW IDEAS
If you garden, you might greet someone out walking their dog on a chilly morning while you're checking your plants for frost. If that someone is especially chatty, they may even pause for a short discussion of frost and weather and what their mother did to keep her plants alive, and then go on their way. Not, of course, if they have air pods in their ears and don't even notice you digging away out in front of your house.
If you're the dog owner you may be the one to wave and smile while commuters drive into their driveways and then into their garages. Automatic garage door openers and mobile-listening options, although genius and convenient, have single handedly taken the neighborliness out of the neighborhood.
A downloadable PDF of the 12 simple steps is available on The Joyful Life Magazine Blog. Get yours today and start asking the Lord for what you need.
Do you need?
- Insight into a neighbor's need?
- Guidance as to who to invite—the whole neighborhood or street or block?
- Time to fit it into your busy schedule?
- To let go of lingering perfectionism?
- Provisions—food and money?
- Your family to help out?
- A positive attitude towards hosting?
- Freedom to not compare yourself with others?
- Love for your neighbors?
- Courage?
- Another neighbor to partner with you?
- Other?
Please email me and I'll pray—sue@welcomeheart.com. If you're thinking: All of The Above, I get it. Email. I'll pray.
This is the week—or month—for hospitality talk! Catch my podcast on how a simple invitation can change the world, one cup of coffee at a time. Tea works, too.
How to invest in what matters beyond ourselves. We have one life – let's make the most of it for God, others, and eternity.
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