Where is the reward in that?

I have had the opportunity to really embrace a few passages over the course of that last few months.  To love your neighbour as yourself, to pray for those who persecute you and to show kindness/love to those who hate you.  We live in that is called a Company House.  That is a house that was built by the mining companies when the town I live in was a coal mining mining town.  They are like mirror image town houses but they are not very sound proof.  There is  quite a bit of noise that passes through the walls, especially upstairs.  I can hear when they turn on the radio or TV, when they open and close drawers in their kitchen and even hear them walking upstairs.  They can likewise here noise from our side and with 2 active kids and a home-day care, there must be quite a bit of noise.  2 parents and their almost 20 year old son live next door.  The mom told me how noisy it can be and I honestly had no idea - the houses in Toronto are much more sound proof so I just assumed this house was too.  I apologized and immediately worked on lowering the noise level.  This was appreciated and now the parents next door and I are on good terms.

The son is a different story.  He is an only child and spoiled (the parents words - not mine) and he doesn't like kids.  Also before we moved in our great-aunt pearl lived here and she is a sweet 93 year old women who obviously makes much less noise than a family of 4 or a home day care.  Needless to say he was not impressed.  We ad exchanged a few words before about keeping the kids off the gravel drive way  (which I hate that we have) as it drives his mom nuts when it's disturbed.  Fine - I can be accommodating to that.  But kids break rules and he happened to be walking home when such an instance occurred and proceeded to yell at me and give me a piece of his mind, then tell me to get off his property before he calls the cops.  I replied, I can stand here and listen to you or I can correct my children which I was about to do.  Kids sometimes break rules.  I will reprimand them and fix the gravel.  This didn't satisfy him, so he called him mom at work, then came out and yelled at me again to get off his property (which I wasn't on).  When the mom came home from work I went out to apologize and make sure that I have the right dividing line between out 2 lawns as her son didn't seem to think I did.  I was indeed right and she said not to worry about it - kids break rules.  In the middle of our conversation, the son comes out and starts yelling at me to stop harassing his mom.  wow.  She tells him off.

Not long after another problem arises.  If the son thinks the noise level in the house is too loud, he would bang on the walls.  This annoys me and scares the kids.  Just before Christmas it gets really bad.  I guess their room was beside his room or the office where he might study and he would bang on the wall as they were going to bed - and as we know kids don't always go to bed nicely - sometimes they resist.  After about a week of this, they kids were terrified of going to bed because of the monster next door.  I tried to explain what was going on, but they didn't really understand.   One specific night it was ridiculous.  I was only speak, and he would bang so loudly, the pictures on the wall would shake.  That was it - I had had enough.  His mom had asked me to talk to her if there was a problem, but she wasn't home, and this needed addressing.  So I went next door to ask him to stop banging for about 20 minutes while I settle my kids to go to sleep, and then there would be quiet until the morning.  Well - I have NEVER been spoken to in such a manner.  Nothing but "piss and vinegar, venom and poison" came out of his mouth.   He was obviously very angry and said a lot of nasty things.  Replying to anything he said would be almost pointless.  So I let him rant and vent.  Then he threatened me, and my kids.  To which I said, "threaten me again and I will call the police.  I have broken no laws and what  you are doing is called harassment.  I suggest you watch what you say".  That didn't make him happy and when he couldn't get a rise out of me and he ran out of things to say, he tried to provoke me.  I simply said that when he's ready to have a conversation like an adult, to let me know.  And with that I walked away.  Put the kids in my bed to sleep - they were so scared that they went down right away.  And then I burst into tears.

The mom came home, and I could hear them yelling.  Someone knocked on my door, but I didn't answer.

The kids were scared, and I was angry.  So what did I do and tell my kids to do?  Pray.  I said that we need to love others even if they don't love us back and we need to pray for those who are mean to us.  So we pray for our neighbour and we show them kindness often.  If the son and I cross paths, I will say hello (which is followed by a 'f*** off' from him)  But if he wants to be in a bad mood, that's his problem, not mine.

And this isn't easy to do, but it's the right thing to do.  If we only love those who love us back, where is the reward in that?  And here is an opportunity to show the love of Christ by showing love.