Loving our neighbors

We have been discussing loving our neighbors (including our siblings, friends, etc). With the focus on our literal "neighbors," the kids and I were discussing ways to demonstrate the love of God to those who live around us. In a time and culture where many neighbors never even see one another let alone know names, we wanted to dare to be different.

If you are looking for an inexpensive way to send a little love to your neighbors (especially with Valentine's day coming), here is an idea we had. We got cute little Chinese food boxes (we got the medium size boxes) from Cash & Carry (which takes all forms of credit cards...we just learned) for about $5 for a huge sleeve. We added ribbon from Target (in the front area for $1) and some 99 cent stickers. It was fun for the kids to decorate the boxes. Inside we filled them with some Kisses (colored for Val's day) and cookies. The shortbread recipe we used was simple and fantastic (only 3 ingredients, seriously). Dipped with some chocolate and sprinkles ($3 for a huge container also at Cash & Carry--very similar to Smart & Final for my friends in SCV), they turned out great.

We topped the box off with a little sticker that says, "Love, Your Neighbor~Luke 10:27" On the bottom we put a little label that has our names and our address (for the neighbors who feel bad that they forgot our names after they have talked with us a couple of times...we forget theirs sometimes too). Anyway, we are set to walk around and deliver them tomorrow. The kids LOVE doing things like this and always want to do "just one more neighbor" when we are finished.

It is fun loving others!


Matthew 22:36-39

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"

And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'

"This is the great and foremost commandment.

"The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'