The Blessings of Good Neighbors
/We've moved over ten times in our almost thirteen years of marriage. Many months leading up to our move, we pray for our future neighbors. We have been so amazed at how God has answered our prayers!
The Lord has blessed us with a lot of great neighbors. One sweet one is a former Baptist pastor and brought us flowers to welcome us to the neighborhood.
Because our yard is very tiny (mostly woods and a little stream), he suggested our children could play on his spacious yard anytime they desired. He also told us his precious wife has cancer like Mom did and is in hospice care. He wanted us to come and visit the house anytime we wanted to meet her.
Having many little ones we'd either have a slight cold making it's rounds or I was too weak due to my poor appetite.
But last night I felt much better because I had been able to eat some dinner a few days in a row. I felt the Lord prompting me, "You feel good enough Franicia. Go now before someone gets sick again or..."
They appeared to have company but some of the family came over earlier to joke around with the children. They knew each other from before except for me since I had been inside and weak.
We were greeted at the door with huge smiles and asked to come in. They introduced us to their whole family and were so warm and inviting! We told our sweet neighbor we had been praying for her and had been wanting to sing a hymn for her as a gift and we did.
Then a beautiful thing happened.
Different family members started singing hymns and then a guitar was brought out so we could all sing hymns together. They wanted to know which ones we knew so that we could sing them all with them!
One of the older daughters told us that it was good that we showed up last night, that it had been a good day for her mom, and that hospice had given her two weeks to live.
It's been almost a year since I lost Mom to breast cancer and now to be in a living room full of new friends who knew not when they may see their dear mother on this earth was painful.
The night was precious. It brought us great joy to see our neighbor enjoying the singing and the hymns with enthusiasm, even when she was barely responding days ago. The Lord is so merciful.
We were so encouraged by this precious pastor's family's love and kindness to us and each other! It was obvious that he and his wife were faithful to not only teach all their children (now grown) about the Lord, but how to love Him with all their heart! To worship together to our great God in song was heavenly and we thank Him for His sweet reminders through other believers that He loves us.