After church today, we talk about the sermon on being a good neighbor. It occurs to me that being a good neighbor starts with our interaction within the home.
We talk about what this love means:
acting with kindness,
looking for ways to be helpful,
noticing pain or sadness,
serving without hope of reward,
encouraging others,
having the interests and well being of others be as important as our own,
and speaking with lovely, excellent language that leads people toward God.
Maybe the reason so many of us fail to love our neighbors outside of our home is because we can hardly do so within our home. I remind my daughters that being a good neighbor begins right here and moves outward from what we’ve already been practicing.
Oh, this little microcosm of a home, this little world! If we learn here how to love well, there’s hope for us all!