I have the best neighbors in the world!

For the past seventeen years I have lived next door to the same family: The Doyles. There are Don and Debbie who have three grown kids and three grandchildren to date.  Two of the grandchildren are about the same ages as some of my own children so they have grown up together. We consider them family. They don't knock. They help themselves to food and drink. They feel at home when they are here. My kids especially like it that since they are considered "family", they don't get any special privileges like other guests do when in our home. The Doyle's youngest daughter along with her husband and little girl fall into the same category even though they aren't our neighbor. Addy Mae, their four year old, comes over regularly for popsicles and to play with Hannah's hamster "Squirt".

God says in His word that the law is summed up in two commands: Love God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not happen overnight. It happens over time when people spend lots of time together, survive crises together, laugh and cry together. That love deepens as we get to know one another better and share our hearts with one another.

The same is true for our love for God. We recognize God's love for us by acknowledging His son who died on the cross in order that we might have life forever and life full and abundant. Yet as we walk through life..especially the hard places, when we trust the God who saved us, we get to know Him even more as His love for us manifests through His character. Whether He  provides something that we want or need, or He cares for us or our loved ones, or He strengthens us to get through a difficult situation. As we acknowledge His provision for us, it deepens our love for God himself as well.

Over the years it has become easy to love the Doyles as our neighbors. Just last week I realized we have had three major saves in less than twelve months. Don, who works from home, is often the one coming to our rescue. First, back during spring break last year, my kids asked permission to use the Doyle's kayaks to put in the river. Thomas was out of this experience because he had broken his arm that week on a skateboard outside and was in a cast. So initially the experience began with Hannah, while Thomas and I watched from the bank of the river.  The agreement was that Hannah would not go out any farther from the bank than about fifteen feet and make a circle to come back. My rationale was this:  At that distance I could get to her quickly enough if something went wrong. In addition, I have NO kayak experience. So I wanted to be able to hear and see her well.

Everything was fine momentarily. We experienced that feeling of, "Wow, we are doing something new and exciting." I was grateful for neighbors who had fun toys and shared. We had the river in our back yard, etc....Lots of happy thoughts and feelings. Then trouble began brewing. It started with Hannah's requests to go out farther to which I promptly replied, "No". Moments later John Jay, my twelve year old appeared home from baseball practice. He found us on the river bank and asked to join Hannah. Red flags went up immediately but I set the boundaries and he entered the water in the second kayak.

Within minutes the two kids were farther out than I planned and not listening to directions. Within a few more minutes John's kayak tipped, John panicked, left Hannah alone and began swimming to shore, while the kayak floated downstream. I believe the coldness of the water  scared John the most. He is a great swimmer. His arms and legs were bright red when he reached the bank. Meanwhile Hannah has gone out far enough that she is drifting downstream and trying to save the second kayak all alone. Now she is crying from her position and I am helpless on the riverbank. Finally after various instructions not working, I tell her to forget about the other kayak. Mr. Don can get it. I instruct her to paddle to shore about twenty yards down from where she put in.

When I realize she is safe on shore, I fetch Don, the rescuer, who drives down the road, kayaks out into the river from another location and gets his boat. We get the hysterical Hannah inside and dried off. And that concludes our first major save this year by the best neighbors in the world which led to many teaching lessons regarding not jeopardizing or leaving a younger sibling in a dangerous situation....listening and cooperating with your parent....learning skills at a new venture before embarking with the equipment, etc.

It was only a few shorts months later in late summer I wound up with four preteen boys in my home. Three friends were staying the night with John. We survived the night and the boys embarked outside the next morning while I prepared breakfast...a hearty feast: eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, the works. I am enjoying my time cooking. When time comes to call the boys, I get no response. When I finally leave the house to go and find them, I find two of the boys standing at the place where we usually climb down the riverbank.....neither of which was my son. When I asked where John Jay and the other boy is I get this dumb stare like they sincerely don't know. When I pressure them, I discover the other two have swam across the river.

Panic set in like never before. I search across the water and see nothing. I frantically run into my neighbor's back door and cry out, "I need your help. John and another boy are crossing the river. I can't see them. Will you help me?" I see Don jump from his chair calling for Kevin, his son." While they take off in one direction, I began running through my yard to the neighbor on the other side who has a cleared landing.

Amidst this frantic time I am fervently praying for God to save them.  I stand from the riverbank searching for boys and screaming. To the left about two hundred yards I think I see two heads bobbing about twenty yards from the other side of the river. I am screaming for them not to attempt to come back but naturally they can't hear me. The helplessness I felt at that moment drove me to cry out to the Lord for rescue. A boater stopped, picked them up, and brought them home. I was so upset, I would not even let the boys inside. I took all three home immediately and carried John to his football weigh in in wet clothes. No one got a hot breakfast that morning.  We have had many discussions since about the wrongdoing and danger of swimming where there is moving watercraft. However, still John Jay's favorite song last summer was Alabama, "Play Me Some Mountain Music"..."swim across the river just to prove that I'm a man". Playing on my drive for storytelling, he even said, "Mom, I'll have a great story to write about!"

Finally, the most recent neighbor rescue occurred involving Cocoa, one of our dogs. As I unloaded the groceries after driving in from work, I hear a bark. It is a cry for help bark. I have come to recognize our dog's barks. Sometimes the bark means I have an animal cornered and am trying to get to it. Sometimes the bark is I want to come inside. This was a bark for help. I glance toward the sheds. Our dogs, as well as the neighbor's dogs, have been locked into the shed overnight more than once. But the sound is not coming from that direction. I proceed to carry the groceries in and casually mention that Cocoa is barking but I can't see her. Hannah, the animal rescuer, immediately leaves to find her. As I go for my last bag of groceries and close my car door, the bark forces me to look up. There in my neighbor's barn UPSTAIRS Cocoa is barking from the window. Ok...there are no steps to get up there so I am wondering how in the heck did she get upstairs. Now Mary, Hannah, and Thomas are trying to get her down. Finally, after no luck, I say what I always say, "Go get Mr. Don. He'll know what to do."  Well, he did. He propped a ladder against the barn and pulled Cocoa out by her front legs. Mary said, "I don't know what scared me more.. That Cocoa might bite him in the face or the ladder about falling." I took over a leftover "entree to go" from work for that venture/rescue.

There have been so many more over the years....fresh aloe plant for a kid with a bad sunburn, vegetable soup for me to get over a bad sinus infection, help finding Hannah who had fallen asleep outside in the swing (I had called her for ten minutes when finally Don came over to help look). Guess he was tired of listening to me yell, and many more.

I am thankful that God protected my kids in that water as well as Cocoa. He is so faithful. But I am forever grateful that He gave me such great neighbors. Not only because they help with so so much but also because it is so much better to not walk through the trials of life alone. It is easier to get through them when you know someone cares.

I look for ways to bless them in return but feel like more often than not they are the ones continuing to give. Do you have great neighbors? Are you a great neighbor? I once served with a pastor who told us he could get a hundred people to give and go to another country for missions. But he couldn't get twenty to help in their own community.

Jesus commanded us to serve our Jerusalem (our community) Samaria (other cities) and the uttermost parts of the world (the rest of the world). Who is in your Jerusalem? How are you ministering to them? They may not look like your family or live like your family. Yet, God said to love them as we love ourselves.

If you are having trouble loving your neighbor or even getting to know your neighbor, ask the Father to give you a willing spirit to build a relationship with the person closest in proximity to you....your next door neighbor. And I would love to hear some of your stories!