I have close people in my life who will often Facetime me to show me something or to simply have a face-to-face conversation. It\u2019s a great way to close the distance between us. But I\u2019ll be honest with you — it often catches me off-guard because I\u2019m still in my gown and robe and my hair and make-up aren\u2019t up to up-close-and-personal interactions. As a matter of fact \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t want you to see me right now! Yikes! Often, I want to decline the calls for those reasons. What I like most about our phones, the internet and email is that we DON\u201dT see each other. We can hide behind our electronics without concern for how we look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We know most people only by their names, so we don\u2019t really know them at all. I am meeting new people here in my new community every day. They offer their name and then I find out something about them that will stand out. Like Sandy who has a beautiful Labra-Doodle dog named Magellan and Ed & Marlene who just moved in a couple of days ago. Ed was perched on their patio while his wife and daughter were unloading their kitchen stuff. I was on my patio. Then there’s Marianne who has a cute dog and a Rockstar baseball player grandson like I do. She and I compare the results of our boys\u2019 games. We have something in common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thursday nights here are \u201cHappy Hour\u201d and all kinds of drinks and snacks are served. I had just returned from a trip to the store when I received a call from the assistant manager: \u201cDonna, aren\u2019t you coming to Happy Hour?\u201d I said: \u201cNo. I just made it home from the store and have unpacking to do.\u201d He replied: \u201cDonna, you need to come so I can introduce you to everyone. They\u2019re starting to form \u201cclicks\u201d so you need to see which \u201cclick\u201d you want to be in!\u201d LOL! Sounds like high school, doesn\u2019t it? So, I went and rather than him needing to introduce me, I went to each table and introduced myself and had some great encounters with real face-to-face people. I found out there are some kind, caring and interesting folks that will soon become dear friends to me. I will remember those people because I had and will have face-to-face encounters with them. At the end of the get-together, I quickly raced back to my place and jotted down info about those I met so I would remember them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Honestly, it\u2019s time to step out of the \u201cunseen\u201d and be seen. If we really were like God \u2013 we would love and care for our \u201cneighbors\u201d \u2013 not based on whether we saw them and sized them up based on their outward appearance, but on their hearts. God\u2019s love is the same for all people regardless of race, gender, or stature. \u201cI do not look at your outward appearance or worldly achievements, I only see your spirit and your heart.\u201d (1 Samuel 16:7) “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I\u2019ve made a personal commitment! I won\u2019t be a hermit. I will not stay behind closed doors. I plan on loving myself so much that I get out and about so some of the Jesus in me rubs off on others. When I do that, I\u2019m \u201cloving my neighbor as I love myself.\u201d (Matthew 22:39) Maybe it\u2019s time to live those words. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have close people in my life who will often Facetime me to show me something or to simply have a face-to-face conversation. It\u2019s a great way to close the distance between us. But I\u2019ll be honest with you — it often catches me off-guard because I\u2019m still in my gown and robe and my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20006,20005,20007],"tags":[20004,19997,1210,1769,252,1086,20001,10147,19998,19999,40,20002,20000,20003,10615,2498],"class_list":["post-14004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-friendly","category-hiding-behind-computer","category-show-friendliness","tag-be-friend","tag-behind-computer","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-conversation","tag-friends","tag-happy-hour","tag-hiding","tag-hiding-behind-computer","tag-hiding-behind-masks","tag-inspiration","tag-introduce","tag-know-by-names","tag-love-our-neighbors","tag-neighbors","tag-outward-appearance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14004"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14007,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14004\/revisions\/14007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}