Focus on the Good

For the past 2+ years we have been living side by side with neighbors who are really un-neighbors. We've been looked down upon because we have a child who is a little different, and unfortunately, judged because Ryan doesn't behave in terms they find acceptable. It's been very difficult living next door to them...and not being able to escape the everyday reminders of the issues we have with one another. It's been hard to find closure because of the "don't talk to me and I won't talk to you" approach they've forced us to use, and to be honest, it has been a situation of bondage with me. It affected me more than I care to admit and turned me very bitter on the inside. It was also something I let attribute to sending me into a long depression.

Now that I'm seeing the light a little more each day, I am seeing that the monster I once called my un-neighbors aren't as scary as I made them out to be. I'm much less intimidated by them now, and can 94% say that they don't affect me. The situation is something I've really asked God to help me with. I know I can no longer allow the hate I feel towards them to be within me - acknowledging that was the first step. Since then, it's gotten better and better. Last week, God showed me something about the situation that grabbed a hold of me. It had to do with sunflowers, and recently with me, if God speaks sunflowers I know He is up to something good!

He had already been ministering to me about magnifying the good, and to stop focusing so much on issues and problems because they keep the good, that desires to be in me, - OUT!. There is a song on a worship CD, by Kim Hill, that I had been pressing the replay button on constantly. It's called, Be Magnified. And the words play over and over in my head....

When I have believed in a lie
That You were unable to help me
But now, Oh Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong
And in my eyes, and with my song
Oh Lord, be magnified
Oh Lord, be magnified

When we sing these kinds of cries out to God, really, there is nothing He can't do!

One day I looked out my window and saw the new garden our good neighbor (on the other side of us) had planted. This is the first year he's planted a garden and it has been fun to watch the growth of all the plants, and see the vege's take form. On this particular day, I looked out on the garden and remembered a conversation I had with this good neighbor. I had asked him what kinds of plants were in the garden. After he finished naming off the various vegetables that were in the ground he said, "and I stuck a few sunflowers in there just for the heck of it, even if they really don't fit in with a vegetable garden." When he first made that comment I could do nothing but chuckle on the inside because of my prior sunflower revelations.

After remembering the conversation, God showed me a vision of both of my neighbors, and then asked me to keep my focus on the good neighbor - and to allow the vegetable garden (with those few sunflowers) to be a focal point. He also reiterated to me that there was no need to keep on looking over at our un-neighbors and reliving what had happened with them. He wanted me to know that the more I look on the good, the more the bad gets washed away. I'm guessing that is a round about way to say He want's me to forgive. The thing that is so lovely about it is how much He knows how afraid of that word I am, but going about it in this way didn't seem quite so scary!

Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you. Romans 12:2 TLB

Isn't it awesome that we serve a God who will go to such lengths just for us? It's even more awesome to think that in my own strength, I could not make the un-neighbor problem better, but He can...and He is!



The tall stalks in the back are the sunflowers. They haven't opened to show their glory yet, and I know that as I look at them each day, I'll have faith that just as God is growing them up to be unashamed and glorious, He is also doing the same within me. As I grow I will be able to look up, full faced to the Son, and not let little un-neighborly actions affect me - affect my heart. I may not always feel it, but I sure am glad for the little coincidental reminders He places on my path to remind me!