Love Your Neighbor!

Good Monday all my crafty friends!! I hope you all had a fantabulous weekend! Mine was very nice as we celebrated my daughters' 11th birthday!! Whoop, whoop!! LOL My husband and I started late in life, so whilst all my lovely friends have started having grandchildren, I still have young ones at home!!! I wouldn't take ANYTHING for either of my girls or change ANYTHING, but I do confess that sometimes I wish I was having that "life after kids" thing that everyone talks about, but then on the other hand, I still love "snuggling" with my babies!! If nothing else, they keep me young at heart!! :)))

Today, I will share Week 3 of my Take Me Deeper Journal Challenge over on His Kingdom Come. I'm still playing catch up, so this was last weeks journal page. Week 3's page was based on the scripture from JOhn 13:34-35 that says "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Do you know your neighbor? Some people live in a "suburbian neighborhood" and have "actual" neighbors and some live out in the "county," or "countryside" so your neighbor may be a mile or two down the road. But when you think about it, a "neighbor" could be ANYONE who needs a blessing in one form or another.

Let me take this one step further. The Old Testament said, "love your neighbor," but the New Covenant said "Love your enemies!" Oops! That could get some of our toes stepped on!! That, my friend, is a deeper and higher degree of love!! The true mark of Christian love requires us to reach out past our "own" idea of loving one another, requires divine power and this power is only given to those indwelt by the Spirit!! Our flesh doesn't want to love our enemies for any given reason that our flesh wants to justify, however,the Spirit cries out in the name of Jesus to love EVERYONE as the Father loves them, no matter what they may have done! The greatest example of that is the cross!!! As He was dying, Jesus cried out "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!" His love for His enemies at the foot of the cross as they stood waiting for Him to die, was evident even then!! Our flesh is weak, but the Spirit is STRONG!!!!

Jesus loved us so much that He sacrificed for us that, that expression would set us apart and give us a CLARITY of the Father's love for us, that we could love another, EVEN OUR ENEMIES, as He loves us!!!

I began this journal page placing on some Tim Holtz tissue tape here and there and then covered with a light coat of gesso. I then just pulled out my cheap Folkart acrylic paints and smeared on with a baby wipe. I stamped with some background stamps and then took another acrylic paint with an old credit card and dotted on here and there. I then distressed the edges with Distress Ink in Peacock Feathers.

I knew I wanted to do some little houses, so I just pulled out some of my scrapbook papers and cut pieces to make some cute little houses that were quite visibly different. It's easy to love someone that's the same as you are, but sometimes its harder to love someone different! First however, I took out this cute little "tree" stamp that I got in a bargain bin one time for a buck and stamped a tree line for the background. I then glued my house pieces down and did some shading for the hill/tree line and around the houses with my favorite Faber Castell Big Brush Pens.

I decided to do some Zentangle/Doodling inside the trees rather than color them thinking it would be just a little different and then I added some smoke coming out of the chimney's, again, making them coming out in a "different" way. Then I just simply stamped the cute little heart with wings stamp between the two houses symbolizing the "love" and colored it in with my Sakura gel pens and added my sentiment at the top. Voila! This was really a fun page to do! :)))))))

Won't you take the time today to examine your own heart regarding your neighbor and your thoughts towards them. It could be your street neighbor or the person sitting in the cubicle next to you or even that person you had a disagreement with and are having a hard time forgiving! They ALL deserve to be loved and not just "loved," but loved with the magnitude that the Father loves us......through the eyes of Jesus! His blood covers ALL!!!!

Blessings