Tag: respect

Loving our next door neighbors

Published on by lindseybiggsLeave a comment

We’ve all had “those” neighbors, I’m sure. The ones who move in and seem to disrupt our routine, our quiet, our peace, etc. We had those neighbors, too. But then they did a surprising act of kindness, and this one positive interaction with them completely changed our perspective. They were the Good Samaritans helping us with car trouble, and we were given the opportunity to learn more humility, grace, and understanding from the experience. Now we have a relationship based on appreciation for one another. Have you had an experience like this, too?

You can read about this experience in my recent article for The Christian Science Monitor. 

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Liking v. Loving

Published on by lindseybiggs1 Comment

I had the wonderful realization last night that I don’t have to like everyone, but I do get the privilege and have the ability to love everyone. While it might seem easier to love the people that we like, Jesus shows us how to go deeper.

He said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

This makes me think of Jesus disciples being in one big love fest where everyone gets along and no one has any conflict. However, we have evidence in the Bible that some disciples found it hard to get along. I like to think that even if we don’t like someone we can still have the humility and unselfishness to work together, as Jesus’ disciples did. And we have the spiritual understanding to know that each individual is made in the loving image of God.

In a way, this way of loving each other is a lot simpler than trying to get human personalities to blend. It goes straight to the divine, to the Truth and spiritual state of things. It frees me from even wasting time trying to get human personalities to match up when I can go right to the true idea and get to know each one as the son and daughter of God.