You ever have a neighbor that is really hard to be around? I am not just talking about a few struggles, but it is always an issue? I am dealing with that in my life right now. NOTHING SEAMS TO BE RIGHT IN THIS NEIGHBORS LIFE! She gets upset at noises when we live on a really busy street. Our other neighbors do not complain about this issue she has, just her. She has called the cops on almost every neighbor around us, and even the neighbor on the other side of our house (a street, our house then theirs). She told me today that "she did not want to talk to me about it because she could not trust me". I don't understand... I have the struggle to get really upset inside. I do not show it on the outside, but on the inside I am a wreak!
I did have a breakthrough today though... I asked God to give me strength to realize where I might be wrong, but the rest let go. Even if this issue was "taken care of" in her mind, there would just be something else that she would complain about. I have to realize that it is not me, but it is her. She lives a very dark and lonely life, and has rejected all attempts to share the light of Jesus to her. I just (I don't know why I say 'Just') find myself praying for her.
4 comments:
You've had a blog all this time and never told me! Hmmmm... Was it you that left the messages on my blog? or some other Joel? Love yah. How you doing?
Another thought... You have to realize that this lady isn't a Christian and doesn't have the peace of God in her. You have no idea what is going on in her life or has happened to her to make her the grouchy person she is. I have found in these situations constant love and pray is all that works. Invite her for dinner, even if the thought of it makes you cringe. She probally won't say no but it's a start. Bring her fruit or whatever. Show her that no matter how bad she treats you, you still respond in love. try it!
Becca, it was me that left that post. sorry that I did not tell you about this blog....
About this lady, Amy and I try all the time, but she is hard. That does not stop us, we even sent her a christmas present, but she is so upset at us ??? that she put the present back on our porch! I pray for her almost every day. I know there has been a lot of hurt, and we have thought long and hard that maybe she wants to be alone so badly that she would go as far to try to damage relationships to be alone... just an asumption. She is not a believer, and is hostil to the thought, but we keep praying
I had (have) a co-teacher that used to treat me horribly. She would disrepect me horribly while I was teaching. She would leave A4 pieces of paper on my locker with poster size letters telling me what I did wrong that day, in full view for everyone to see. I, too, gave her a Christmas basket (with homemade cookies and candy) a couple of years ago and she left it on her desk for a week untouched and then threw it in the garbage, as a clear shout out to me of what she thought of it. Everyone described our relationship as FIRE, and that is exactly how it felt. I prayed and prayed about it because everytime I had to see her Fire arouse in me. Matt would bear hug her if she did stuff like that to him or kiss her on the head. Something that he knew she hated but felt like she needed. I would of squeezed her to death with as much emotion I had inside of me.
She constantly berated my teaching, my personality, etc. Up until one point I tried to show her where I was coming from. See my point of view, why I did the things I did. I just got to the point where I gave in. I did every single little thing she asked of me, no matter how stupid or wrong I thought she was. She found more and more things I did wrong but I just kept at it. Being the first to say sorry, even though I did nothing wrong. Slowly she ran out of things to tell me to do. Our relationship went from FIRE to ICE. We both lost our flame. I kept praying what I was doing would work. Others joined in and slowly I started being "friendly" to her. Trying to melt the ice between us. Try to make jokes. Ask her questions that I knew she knew the answers to. Over the last two years it has been a pain-stakingly slow process of getting in her good graces. But now we talk frequently and in good manner to eachother. Don't get me wrong we'll never me best friends, I will probally never be the "one" to share Christ message with her (Because her heart is closed to what I have to say on that matter.) but we work well together and have a mutual respect for eachother.
It's sounds like this neighbor is alot like my c0-teacher. What if you gave into her request? Do you think that would help? You probally will never get her to see your point of view. So what if you gave into her's for a while? It's worth a try.
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