Yesterday, Linda, who is a friend and neighbor, popped in to visit for half an hour and brought us some lemon blueberry bread she had made, a wonderful breakfast treat.  How sweet of her it is to do this for us, I thought, and how “old-fashioned.”

As I ate a piece this morning with my coffee, I reminisced . . . I remember the good old days when neighbors became friends and strong relationships were formed. I recall as a young child, the family who lived upstairs and how the two mothers became friends and the children played together. I remember spaghetti lunches with the “kids” on our porch, and have pictures in an album of us there. We are still friends to this day!  I remember Auntie Helen and Uncle Charlie, neighbors down the little hill, and going there as a child for a cuddle and a cookie.

Aunt Lou and Uncle Dick (not relatives, just neighbors) but how precious they were to us. I recall running for Uncle Dick when my Dad had cut off pieces of 3 fingers on the circular saw. He drove my parents to and from the hospital. In times of need, the neighbors all pitched in, and we did the same for them.

There’s Ken and Donna who lived just up the hill. We helped in their time of need, and they have been close friends ever since, contributing time, money, and their presence countless times since Ron has been sick. What a blessing! The love between the four of us is incredible!

But today, unless one is in our age category, such neighborliness is basically unheard of. We have isolated ourselves behind the doors of our homes, and entertained ourselves with the TV and the internet. The precious friends of yesteryear are seldom experienced. I remember just a couple of years ago, how I baked bread for new neighbors and took it to them–that’s how we began to know each other. Now as a caretaker, I don’t have the same amount of time and energy, and I miss it! Come to think of it, I’m going to bake bread in the next day or two, and take it to the police officer who moved into the nearby log cabin, a loaf for Linda and her husband, and one for the neighbor lady who just buried her husband.

AND–this morning I shall write a note of thanks to Karen and Eric, and to Linda, who brought us this delicious lemon-blueberry bread. That’s another lost art, isn’t it? You know, the hand will write what the mouth cannot speak. Just think of all the New Testament chapters that are letters from Paul to people of the churches of his day. They are some of the most wonderful Biblical chapters, encouraging us still today.

So, my admonition is to be a friend, write notes of thanksgiving and praise, take a plate of cookies to a new neighbor, visit the lonely–the widows and widowers, taking them a tasty tidbit. What joy you will bring to your neighbors!

“ . . . make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue knowledge; and to your knowledge, self -control; and to your self -control, patient endurance; and to your patient endurance, godliness; and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 2 Peter 1:5-6