Monday, May 07, 2007

The battle of kindness


Yesterday I called home after church, and my wife said, "You won't believe it, the neighbors are mowing our lawn again!"
Yes, I'm once more behind. Two weeks ago I mowed our yard and theirs, and hoped to do it again today, but they beat me to it....they must know by now that Sunday mornings are a good time to mow, because I am not there to protest, so the battle of kindness continues....
This has turned into a very funny situation. We seem to be looking for ways to be kinder to each other than the other one is. Yesterday the neighbors even mowed some of my back yard. So far the battle of kindness has been isolated to the front yard, but now the war has been taken to a new level.
They are very sweet neighbors. I look forward to an opportunity to engage them in a more personal way. So far the battle of kindness has been fought with lawn mowers, but I'm looking for a way to "bring in more troops."
How can I extend grace and kindness to them that will really demonstrate the love of Christ? What fun this is to see God working, and getting my lawn mowed as well!
I'll keep you updated on the war....

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a fun "battle" to wage. I have a fun way for you to "retaliate". If they live right next to you, you could wash their car in the middle of the night, complete with armor-alling the tires! This works well if you can use your house's hose - you wouldn't want them to wake up to the sound of their water running during the night. It would really surprise them, because they wouldn't be expecting anything until their grass was tall enough to mow.
What a neat way to create an opportunity to talk to them about Christ!

Mike Messerli said...

great idea, I'll take all the great ideas you can give me...

susan in fm said...

Mike, that sounds like fun! I think you just keep doing what is right and kind and someday they'll probably flat-out ask you why you're so hopeful and positive. If the relationship is there, they'll be willing to listen... at least that's what I think.

I was going to say you could plant some flowers somewhere... but some people are pretty picky about their yard!

I look forward to hearing more about this - we really don't know many of our neighbors except to wave hello.

Anonymous said...

That is so awesome. It is nice to know that there are friendly neighbors still out there in this world where people tend to be so to themselves these days. Good luck on your kindness war, and thanks for the inspiration

Mike Messerli said...

Tinkerbobbi,

great to hear from you again! how are you guys doing? is all well out there???

Heidi Day said...

Once when I knew a friend was going to be gone for awhile, I went and weeded a neglected part of her flower beds near the front entry, and planted some annuals there. She was so surprised!

If there are no dietary restrictions, you could always leave a baked good near the front door before they come out to get the paper.

What about delivering dinner? That always gets a big smile.

Anonymous said...

In stark contrast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AIo_ZZVFhE&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ereformedchicksblabbing%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

Kathy said...

My Brother and SIL have a similar "problem" with their neighbors. At Christmas time the neighbor keeps outgiving them. The first year my SIL delivered a plate of goodies and the next day the neighbor sent over something bigger. The next year my SIL would deliver a bigger plate of goodies while the neighbor would get more extravagant. Its been five years now. Last christmas the neighbor sent over the gigantic hickory farm basket with a bottle of wine. My brother told me recently its embarassing trying to keep up with them as they keep getting "out-gived". hehe

Sounds like a fun war to wage!

GramCrackers said...

This is just too fun! I think I would like to start a 'giving war' with Heidi Day. I would love to have some of her kind of retaliation!

Anonymous said...

things are going much better than they have been. God has been working in our lives and its just been one of those places you don't want to be in but know God has His reason. Just a time we had to be patient, although I am not good at that, hehe. Things are looking up now, and we are doing well :) I enjoy reading your blog, it daily inspires, as well as your wife's blog too, You guys are great!!! So much wisdom!!!