Love your neighbor

I think people are so interesting. Their habits, the way they interact with others, how they handle conflict, how they express joy, what makes them stress out, what energizes them, why they like or dislike things, why they listen to a certain kind of music, what they think about themselves and what happened in their life to make them think that, what motivates them, what makes them come alive....there are so many facets to a person and I LOVE trying to figure it all out. I think my favorite thing in the world is just sitting down and hearing a person's life story. Talking for hours and finding out their biggest fear or why they feel insecure about something.

It's also interesting how much it affects the people around them. Both good and bad. A vibrant, outgoing personality could cause someone to become more reserved, or it could cause them to become more outgoing themselves and feel more comfortable with who they are. It just depends on how your respond to it. I don't even know if this is making sense but I just love seeing people interact with each other.

However, it can be pretty heartbreaking to hear someone feeling left out or become insecure because of other people's actions. I have been thinking a lot today about how God wants us to interact with each other. Love your neighbor as yourself. Ahhh really??? I don't know about anyone else, but that is definitely in the top 3 on my list of impossible things to do. Sure, we all have our moments but to ALWAYS be loving other people more than ourselves??? How hard is that? But that's exactly what we're called to do. To serve those around us. To let them have the spotlight. To allow them that moment to feel like the most important person in the world. To be the first to volunteer to do the dishes so everyone else can socialize. To be the bigger person in a fight. To stop speaking out of anger in a fight. To not feel this insatiable need to be right all the time.

We need to be kinder to each other. This culture is so focused on number 1. Only yourself, all the time. But that's not how it's supposed to be. Sometimes, I really get frustrated with sin. I know how silly that sounds but really...just think how much easier life would be without it. And not just for ourselves. But for everyone! People wouldn't feel insecure. No one would feel left out or betrayed. There wouldn't be cliques. Everyone would have a friend and feel cherished. Feel loved and respected and valued. I think that is what loving your neighbor means...showing them that they have value. That they are worth enough to take the time to hold the door open for them. That they matter enough to stop and think before you say that thing you know will hurt them. We're all just so mean to each other all the time. And I'm totally guilty of it too. I can think of things that happened just today that I should've been kinder about. We all do it.

I want to learn more about this whole "love your neighbor" concept. It's so opposite of everything we're taught today. But I want to really learn what that would look like in my life. I want to make myself less and make Him greater. Make everyone else greater.

What a task...