How did you treat your neighbours?
Article by Aileen Cairns
Since moving into my street a year and a half ago I have become very friendly with Diane, one of my neighbours. She and her 10-year-old son live next-door but one to me and when I first moved in I was very keen to spend time with her. I was able to spend time with her and other neighbours and it was a great time of building friendships.
However, six months ago my life took a different turn when family matters took over a great part of my life and time. Suddenly I had important responsibilities that took my focus away from anything outside of my family. This resulted in me not seeing Diane as much as I had before.
Just last month Diane had a baby and during the nine months of her pregnancy, due to my family circumstances, I hadn’t been diligent in trying to spend much time with her.
Recently, a friend sent me an email entitled “10 things God won’t ask when you get to Heaven”. One of the things it said is that “God won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived, he’ll ask how you treated your neighbours.”
When I read this I felt very challenged about Diane and decided that I needed to be more diligent and proactive about spending time with her again.
Despite the fact that my situation with my family has not changed and that I still have the same responsibilities and time constraints as before, my thinking and my focus has changed. My passion to treat my neighbours as Jesus would has increased greatly and my thinking has definitely shifted into a new gear.
My challenge now is, how can I show Jesus to Diane and my other neighbours?
Well, just before Diane was due to go into hospital to have the baby, I was able to pray with her, something I hadn’t really had the opportunity to do before. I offered for our neighbourhood group to take meals to her after she came back from the hospital, and she was absolutely bowled over with this and very happy for us to bless her in this way.
I believe that through these serving opportunities and other seemingly ‘little’ acts of kindness we will be showing her who Jesus is and in turn will see great fruit for the Kingdom.
In Romans it says that ‘God's kindness leads people toward repentance’ – How encouraging that if we express kindness to others we have the promise that people will turn to Jesus!
Since moving into my street a year and a half ago I have become very friendly with Diane, one of my neighbours. She and her 10-year-old son live next-door but one to me and when I first moved in I was very keen to spend time with her. I was able to spend time with her and other neighbours and it was a great time of building friendships.
However, six months ago my life took a different turn when family matters took over a great part of my life and time. Suddenly I had important responsibilities that took my focus away from anything outside of my family. This resulted in me not seeing Diane as much as I had before.
Just last month Diane had a baby and during the nine months of her pregnancy, due to my family circumstances, I hadn’t been diligent in trying to spend much time with her.
Recently, a friend sent me an email entitled “10 things God won’t ask when you get to Heaven”. One of the things it said is that “God won’t ask in what neighbourhood you lived, he’ll ask how you treated your neighbours.”
When I read this I felt very challenged about Diane and decided that I needed to be more diligent and proactive about spending time with her again.
Despite the fact that my situation with my family has not changed and that I still have the same responsibilities and time constraints as before, my thinking and my focus has changed. My passion to treat my neighbours as Jesus would has increased greatly and my thinking has definitely shifted into a new gear.
My challenge now is, how can I show Jesus to Diane and my other neighbours?
Well, just before Diane was due to go into hospital to have the baby, I was able to pray with her, something I hadn’t really had the opportunity to do before. I offered for our neighbourhood group to take meals to her after she came back from the hospital, and she was absolutely bowled over with this and very happy for us to bless her in this way.
I believe that through these serving opportunities and other seemingly ‘little’ acts of kindness we will be showing her who Jesus is and in turn will see great fruit for the Kingdom.
In Romans it says that ‘God's kindness leads people toward repentance’ – How encouraging that if we express kindness to others we have the promise that people will turn to Jesus!
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