Shortly after Jack was born, I was perusing Pinterest and got the idea for developing a family motto to hang on our wall. You have probably seen the concept: "In This House We..."
Daniel and I took this idea a step further and came up with a list of things that were specific to our family; then I put my graphic design experience to use and created a sign that hangs in our foyer where we can see it every.single.day.
Our motto incorporates our hobbies [we hike, camp and bike together], our core family expectations [we say I'm sorry, we forgive] and our faith [we love the Lord Our God, and we love others like ourselves].
As our boys grow, we are trying to make sure that we are raising them with this motto in mind, making the effort to follow through with the things we have clearly stated are important to us.
Lately we have been thinking a lot about our neighbors. We try to practice hospitality as much as possible – which can be hard with our busy schedule. In conjunction with this core belief, the church where we worship is encouraging us to meet our neighbors. Most recently this took the shape in the form of throwing a neighborhood block party, of sorts.
Yesterday was National Neighbor Day and we felt like it would be a good opportunity to get out and meet our neighbors – it's kind of hard to love your neighbors when you don't know them.
We invited those living around the perimeter of our neighborhood park to join us at the park for coffee and cookies. We were encouraged to meet four families we hadn't met before. We were surprised that they came out and stuck with us, even though it rained.
We want to continue to get to know our neighbors. We want our boys to know our neighbors. We want them to feel safe in our neighborhood and we want to contribute to the safety of other families as well. I hope we continue to get to know our neighbors and have opportunities to show that we care.
I hope you had a Happy Neighbor Day and get the chance to know your neighbors as well... and if you didn't get to celebrate neighbor day, today is National COFFEE Day, so you could always invite your neighbor over for coffee ;)
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Luke 10:27
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