Love Thy Neighbor.

My husband and I are currently renting a house in a community that has many young couples/people/families in it. During the school year there are many parties to be had on our street, and during the summer months we're realizing there are far less vehicles parked along the street.

We've been living in this area now for seven months; we started in basement suite of the house we're now in, and moved upstairs early this year when the opportunity arose. Our neighbors on both sides of us are fairly young. On one side there are renters as well, both upstairs and downstairs, most of which we believe to be uni/college students because we don't see to much of them since school's finished up. On the otherside is a young couple who are both working and currently five months pregnant! We're friendly with our neighbors on either side, but don't really have a real relationship with them.

Yesterday my husband and I were out for most of the day, starting with church in the morning, lunch with the family, and then a bit of time spent with my sister-in-law. When we arrived home in the later afternoon we found our front lawn to be freshly mowed (yum, I love the smell of fresh cut grass!). But who would have mowed our lawn?
My husband's brother headed over to grandma's after lunch to mow her lawn, perhaps he decided to come over to our place afterwards and mow ours as well? Possible, but not likely since we live on the opposite side of town to grandma.
Our neighbors lawn was freshly mowed as well...could it be he?

Sure enough it was.

How's that for loving thy neighbor??? We often quote the "Golden Rule" and are quick to tell other to "love thy neighbor as thyself," but how often do WE actually follow through with what's coming from our mouths?

Our neighbor Mike, who we hardly know put these phrases to action as he mowed our lawn. Now, we don't have a huge lawn so it wasn't like it was an incredibly straining task for him, yet he still went out of his way to be great neighbor. What an example of what true community should be. Though the relationship maybe isn't there, he showed common ownership, something I think the average person generally overlooks.

We often define community by the relationships we have with one another, but community can also be defined as "a group of people living together in one place, esp. one practicing common ownership." I think it's about time we start building community, but just not in around our close relationships, lets start building good communities around common ownership; around "loving thy neighbor."