love your neighbor xxoo

At church a few Sundays ago, Pastor Eric challenged us {big time} to love our neighbor.

{little conversation going in my head during the sermon}

Me: Sure! I love my neighbor!! And by neighbor, I mean anyone I come into contact with.

Pastor Eric: Today I'm talking about loving your actual neighbor...Like the person that lives right next door.

Me: sad little trumpet sound effect wah-wah-wah.

The neighbors to my right are easy-as-pie to love. They are always outside and very easy to talk to. He's a pastor. His wife is amazing. They have 5 kids. Their 4-year-old could be my 5th son, he gets along so well with Finn and Calvin.

But the neighbor to my left? Have we done a good job loving her?

That's when I started to squirm in my seat that Sunday during the sermon.

Miss Camela. She is practically a stranger to us. We barely know her.

She is very independent and professional. She kind of intimidates me.

It always seems harder to share my faith with certain people--the ones who seem to have it all together. Life is peachy as is. It seems easier to share with the downtrodden.

But that is the wrong attitude.

EVERYONE needs God.

Who am I to decide who gets the Lord?

I knew Valentine's Day was quickly approaching. Love Day. This would be the PERFECT excuse to show our neighbor some Love. The boys could help me make some cookies and could deliver it to her.

Who could refuse a valentine from 4 mini suitors?

I googled Valentine cookies and found stain glass heart cookies. Perfectly festive.

The boys had a hay day unwrapping all the lifesavers--they were for the stain glass part of the cookies.

Finn went right to town crushing the life-savers to bits and pieces.
Anyone find Finn's shirt a tad ironic here?

Cutting out circles from sugar cookie dough.

Boy I forget how much work sugar cookies are. The flour! The sticky mess! The amount of time, oh my!

Little heart shaped cookie cutters. Hard to find the day before Valentine's Day.

Use the little heart cookie cutter to cut a heart-shaped window in the middle of the cookie.

Now the fun part! Pour crushed red life-savers into windows.

Ok, hard lesson to learn, but it works MUCH better when you use larger cookies and the medium size heart cookie cutter.

And presto! (and by presto we mean 4 hours later...)

Next step: hand made tags. Oh Cricut, how I love thee.

All made under the watchful eye of a certain Oolie Boolie.

We placed the cookies in a pretty white tin for Miss Camela.

The remaining cookies were to be dispersed to the rest of our fun-loving neighbors.

And while we are at it, here is what they boys got me for Valentine's Day.

I used to protest flowers. But John wants the boys to see daddy giving mommy flowers and so I now think it's sweet. The boys get excited. They think all girls love flowers. HAHA.




I rounded up my mini men to go deliver the special tin to Miss Camela. We marched over there. I was a smidge nervous.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

{{Pause}}

Ring Door bell.

{{Pause}}

Knock! Knock! Knock!

How could Camela resist this rag-tag disheveled bunch? Apparently she can folks, she can.

Ring Door bell.

{{Pause}}

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Waiting patiently with our kitties.

No answer:(

I think we tried to deliver cookies to Miss Camela twice on actual Valentines Day...

Two times the next day....

And three times today...

Thus far, that makes 7 times total.

To no avail.

Although I am feeling a little discouraged that we will ever make contact with our neighbor, I find comfort in the fact that God has this all under control.

Yesterday I read the passage in Matthew where the disciples were not able to cast out a demon, but Jesus could. When they questioned Jesus why they were unable to cast out the demon, he told them they lacked faith.

"...I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you" Matthew 17: 20

So though from a human perspective befriending Camela seems like Mission Impossible, with God and our little mustard seed of faith, anything is possible. It's all in his timing.

So in the meanwhile, we wait. We do our part and try, but ultimately it's in God's hands.