Who is your neighbor? Many people know the verse Love God with everything you have and love your neighbor as yourself. But who is the neighbor that Jesus is talking about? Step out of your door, because you never know how the Lord is going to use you.
Do you think Jesus was talking about the people that we bump into on a weekly basis? Or just anyone? I believe that Jesus is saying to Love your neighbor which is the person right beside you. The ones you dwell beside. The ones you drive past their homes every morning and every evening.
Who is my neighbor?
This became very convicting to me several years ago. I honestly could not tell you who I was living beside. We lived out in a rural area of Kentucky, in a small community. Little by little I started meeting my neighbors. I made an effort and I met precious little ladies that lived next to me. By the time we moved from that home, they would watch for me to come home to tell what they had done that day. Our neighbor had Parkinson’s Disease and loved to come over and try and shoot basketball with our son.
Every neighborhood looks differently
We are living in a community like non-other that I have ever lived in, it has been a challenge to know my neighbors. We live in an urban, very multicultural neighborhood. Honestly, I think we are the minority, and English is probably not spoken in every home. Actually, I know it is not spoken in every home.
Just to give you a quick overview, To the left is Charlie, he is a single man that loves to hang out in his basement or out by the fire pit that he built this past summer. Behind us is our neighbors that are from Cambodia. We talk about Chickens, growing vegetables each summer. To the right of them, is our neighbors that are from Iraq. They love to swim and have pigeons that they train. They are also very devoted Muslims. To the right of our home is our friends from Cuba. They are great. Our neighbors have some issues that cause us to struggle sometimes but we love them. They cook a lot and love to share their food. Communication is very limited but we try. This is just 4 of our 8 that I would directly call my neighbors.
Who is your neighbor?
Sitting in a small group of ladies one night, we were talking about who our neighbors were and honestly, I was very surprised, saddened, and excited over the responses. Some knew names, some knew neighbors intimately, and some didn’t even know a single neighbor.
I was convicted that even though I knew my neighbors, I had not taken it to the next step to know my neighbors in a deeper way. One that I could have an ongoing conversation about life with them. Real-life, things that mattered. Knowing them personally to the point that I could pray about things in their lives that they thought mattered and not just things that I saw from a distance.
Even in hard times…
As I am writing this, it is an uncertain time in our country. We are all sitting in our homes more because of the Covid-19 Virus. What a perfect time to love our neighbors. We can walk around and check on our neighbors. This has to be done from a distance but still can be done. Take the time to go learn how you can serve your neighbor.
I have added a PDF to this post that will help you and remind you to love your neighbors. Print it off, you might need to print multiple based off of how many neighbors you have. Fill it out and place it somewhere that you see regularly. The refrigerator would be awesome or maybe the wall beside your computer.
Hopefully, this tool will help you step out of your door because you never know how the Lord is going to use you in your neighborhood.
Who is your neighbor fact sheet
I can’t wait to hear back from you on how you have used the neighbor fact sheet. Leave encouraging comments and let me know how much you have enjoyed connecting with your neighbors.
Several months ago, I wrote a post about How to Show Hospitality to your neighbor, be sure to check it out too!
