“Love Thy Neighbor” by Robin Gilbert
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
~ Mark 12:30-31 Modern English Version (MEV)
I am a newlywed! After 20 years of living alone in my little girlie house, with my girlie things filling every room, my favorite snacks in the kitchen, my walls covered in my favorite artwork and my closets overflowing with clothes that I will someday fit in …again, God sent a godly man to watch and pray over me. A wonderful man that is kind, patient, God-filled and “manly”.
So, when the honeymoon was over, and my husband began to move his things into the house, excitement filled my heart. Then I realized that I had to share “my space”… I was happy and excited until it was time to place his belongings in the house.
I sat on my bed looking at his size 13 shoe sitting next to my size 6 and I felt my nose crinkle… Hmmm…I am the queen of puzzles but I was stumped….How do I get the giant shoes and the little shoes all in the same little closet?
As the week went on, I was bombarded with highly important, philosophical questions like…Where do I place the high school football trophy? Should the mug with the picture of the hunting dog go on the shelf next to the hand-blown crystal teapot? Is it legal for beef jerky to share a shelf with hummus? Put the sports magazines next to my first edition collection of Agatha Christie novels? And does he ever put the cap on the toothpaste?
It was endless and by the end of the first month I was frustrated and tension was developing.
I called a friend and after listening to my newlywed venting, he replied with a simple question… “What did the Lord say in Mark 12:31?”
“Um,” I replied, “love your neighbor?”
“Yep,” he said as three seconds of silence past between us.
Again, I said, “Love your neighbor? Okay, I concede, I am confused. Explain please”.
He went on to say, you have a new neighbor, his shoes live next door to your shoes, his mug lives next door to your teapot, his toothpaste lives next door to your toothpaste, his heart lives next to your heart, he has chosen to live next you and he will be your neighbor for the rest of your life and God commands us to love our neighbor.
As our conversation concluded, I thanked my friend for being such a good friend.
I fixed a cup of tea, sat on the couch and opened my Bible to Mark 12. As I read, my heart was filled with love. I thanked God for presenting His Word fresh and new. I thanked Him for placing wise people in my life and I thanked Him for my new neighbor.
“The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ~ Mark 12:31 (MEV)
~ Written by Robin Gilbert ~
Robin is a former Pastor and an ordained minister and a native of Denver, Colorado, who made Huntsville her home in 1982. Robin and her husband, Minister Isaiah Gilbert conduct Real Life Bible Studies through their ministry Our Church Without Walls. She is the founder of the Alabama Christian Business Association, a faith-based nonprofit organization that aids in the startup and connection of Christian owned businesses, and she has authored and published numerous books among which are Dear God…It’s Me – A Meditation Journal, The Ministers Resource Book, and What is…Asked Javien, a Christian children’s book collection.
Robin is a proud mother of four adult children, a mother-in-law and a grandmother of five, which she thanks God for each and every day. A powerful, dynamic, speaker Robin uses the gifts of the Spirit to speak from her heart and soul with a genuine love for whom God made her and for what she does. When asked how and/or why she does all that she does, she simply replies… “I Am The Lord’s”.
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