Do you know that your life is meant to be used to be a shining Beacon of hope and love? Each of us are created with a plan and purpose.
The Lord has given us the charge to be light in the midst of darkness, to be hope in the midst of despair and to be love in the midst of strife and disheartenment. How we treat one another whether in unison or division speaks directly to our relationship with the Lord. If we are in communion with Him, then we will act in the same manner that the Lord Jesus portrayed while He was on the earth.
The Lord Jesus loved all, welcomed all, forgave all, healed all and as His ambassadors on the earth we are called to do the same to the best of our ability. We can’t say that we love God and follow His commands and then have strife with our brother. We can’t talk the talk, but then not walk the walk. Our faith confession must match our life’s actions!
No matter how tempted you have been to stay in strife with someone else, I would encourage you to tear down those walls and seek for peace. Find common ground and do your absolute best to let Christ shine through your life’s example.
No matter how hurt we may feel we must forgive others their trespasses just as we have been forgiven our trespasses. We can’t have a holier than thou mindset because we have all fallen short at one time or another.
If we expect to lead a victorious life, then we must be wise in our dealings with one another and do our best to keep love, peace and harmony at the forefront of our interactions. This life is too short to live it in misery so let us each do our best to love others sincerely, truthfully, wholeheartedly without motive or pretense.
When we do I believe we will elevate our life to a new level and in doing so elevating the lives of others just the same. May we each let our light shine brightly until this whole world sees the love of Jesus through our life’s example.
Here’s something along these lines that I’d like to share from Joseph J. Mazzella, he entitles, “TEARING DOWN THE FENCES.”
“Good fences make good neighbors,” the television commentator said, misquoting Robert Frost for the millionth time in my memory. It made me wonder if the esteemed poet was not looking down from Heaven and sadly shaking his head.
No line of poetry has ever been more misused in history than that one. It comes from Frost’s great poem Mending Wall. In it he writes of him and his neighbor repairing the broken stone wall that divides their property. Frost questions why they are doing so, because there are no animals that need fencing in. He sees as well that the wall is a symbol of the barriers that people create to distance themselves from each other.
He wisely writes that, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was ‘walling’ in or ‘walling’ out, And to who I was giving offence to. Something is there that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.”
His neighbor, however, who Frost describes as a “stone savage” who “moves in darkness” refuses to part from the ways of his forefathers and goes along foolishly with their belief that “Good fences make good neighbors.”
I wonder if Mr. Frost would have ever written this poem if he knew that the line he wrote in irony would be used again and again to encourage what he was so against. Perhaps he would have written a different one about tearing down the fences that separate us and breaking apart the walls that hide our hearts from each other.
Either way, we should embrace the wisdom he shared with us. Fences and walls separate us from each other and from God. We need to take them down stone by stone, walk through them, and embrace each other in joy. We need to love our neighbors just as our Father in Heaven meant for us to. We need to see that good fences Do Not make good neighbors. They just make lonely hearts.
I hope this message inspires and encourages your heart to do your best to live peaceably with those around you. Let your life’s example draw others to the Savior’s love who welcomes all and casts away none!