Juanita D. Price
When I was a kid growing up amongst a horde of cousins and aunts, We the Children were required to commit to memory the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament and beyond that, to leap instantly from sitting down to standing up to recite them loudly before the congregation at church. I’m talking sixty years ago—it’s a long time since those days and a lot of learning happened between Those Days and Today. And, if you don’t mind, I’d like to linger yet awhile in the former.
I came into the world afflicted with something the old folks called “
My high-top shoes targeted me for cruelty of a special kind—you remember—the little school kid kind performed so well on playgrounds across the nation from the former days to now. I came away from that era with two distinct impressions of suffering and its nurture: little boys could outdo themselves in being grossly nasty, while little girls could be absolutely and hate-ful-ly MEAN. The meanness stood out to me because I say the coy deliberateness with which they would execute a particularly delightful (to them) cruelty upon some hapless girl of whom they were jealous. I wondered sometimes why the commandment, “Thou shalt not be cruel and make FUN of thy neighbor” was not included in the list. However, I settled the question for myself by vowing to never ever make fun of people since I understood the pain it caused.
Fast forward now to the good housewifery madness of the 1950’s when I was a young housewife and mother settling into the upper floor of a rented duplex, surrounded by my peers. I was shortly “sneered” into realizing that the Queen Bee of Laundry Day lived next door to me and was in good housewifery command of the whole block! Each of the housewives around me did her level best to come in second on washday (Queen Bee was ALWAYS first). I saw the whole thing as being somehow grade school level of PETTY. It was not important to me to have my clothes out on the line by sun-up since they dried just as well in that hot sun when hung out at noon.
But this did not sit well with Queen Bee. She couldn’t wouldn’t didn’t leave me alone. So I would have to make her. It was easy. It was hilarious. It was lowdown. Through simple trickery, I made the woman lose both face and her mind. She became utterly pitiful in her bafflement as each Monday morning my wash appeared on the line before she could get her foot out her door. What she didn’t know was that I was doing my laundry the evening before, sleeping all night, and rising just early enough to haul it out and hang it up while she was getting up earlier and earlier to both wash and then hang. Poor thing. I wore her out. She had to shut her mouth.
By that time in my life, I had graduated to the “love” commandments of the New Testament. I was not yet a serious Christian, though, so the “love thy neighbor” rule had made no great impression on me. I did not understand that there was a loving way I could have handled that situation. All I saw was that she had delighted in needling me and it had felt GOOD to me to finally shut her fat face up. So there. It ain’t easy to love thy neighbor when thy neighbor loveth not thee. But, live and learn.
My four children were in their teens by the time I surrendered my will to that of the Father. In doing this, the commandments to love became primary in my life.
To obey God is to love Him and show our love for Him (John 14:21). As I yielded my flesh in obedience to God’s instructions, I grew more and more open in accepting God’s love to nourish both myself and my neighbor.
As Christians we sometimes miss an opportunity for the loving treatment of our neighbor. There are all kinds and types of obstacles to impede progress in the love walk. The trouble spot that most easily comes to mind is being judgmental.
And it sticks in their craw.
And it makes them not like you.
And with all that, they don’t believe you care for them either.
Obstacle. See?
Long ago, I moved next door to a couple whose weekly screaming matches were held out in their front yard. This couple was the talk (disgrace) of the neighborhood. The husband would arrive home drunk and his furious wife would refuse to let him in the door with his drunk self. They’d stand toe to toe cussing and fussing. They could be heard all up and down the street.
Even though my other neighbors ostracized this pair, I and my children did not follow suit. I did some neighborly things for the woman and she seemed surprised and pleased by it. As for my children, the couple was always “ma’am” and “sir.” I would speak to them respectfully when I saw them. Then one day, while they were at it in their front yard, I left my house to walk to the bus stop. As I went walking by I looked up at the wife and called out to her, “Good afternoon, Mrs. ____.” She stopped yelling and looked at me in surprise. “Good afternoon, Mr. ____,” I said, looking next at him. Well. He shut up too, gaping at me blankly. They both mumbled an acknowledgement that I had spoken to them. I walked on. Silence followed behind me.
After that, whenever they started up, I made it a point to go out in my yard and greet them by name, with all respect and cheer. Bit by bit, they fell away from doing it as often. Then, they took to fleeing inside their house when they heard my door bang as I’m coming out to greet them. They soon could not look at me. I never reprimanded them, then or later. After each encounter, I went about my business of being neighborly. Their raucous behavior breathed its last and died.
Now. We realize that “neighbor” is not restricted to mean only those who live next door or in our community. Neighbor is a far-reaching concept—clear across the globe, really. But our opportunities to love Neighbor are much more plentiful close to home, and there is no shortage of opportunities our whole lives long, believe me.
Although there is yet a lot left in this simple story about a quarreling couple, space and time is a consideration here. I merely note that I came under a sort of persecution from other neighbors—they were very judgmental of my non-judgmental treatment of people whom they believed worthy of judgment. See? Obstacle. Mercy! That’s sure a mouthful, ain’t it? But know this: when you commit to love, there is no stopping at loving only a little; you gonna have to love a lot. God requires it.
Therefore, I beseech you in the words of 2 John 5-6, that we love one another, walking in the commandments.
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