"make things happen"

we live in a decent neighborhood. it is just one large horseshoe with mostly ranches. the homes were built in the late 60's, and most of the people on our street have been here the entire time. so many of our neighbors are retired and have these beautifully manicured yards which they work on everyday. we talk to our surrounding neighbors and they have all been friendly thus far. one neighbor in particular enjoys "discussing" other neighbors "issues" with me. but i try not to get into it with her.

as many of you know we started remodeling our bathroom a couple months ago, which is just about done. so we've had our old bathtub and sinks outside by the side of our garage since they came out. eventually we were going to deal with them but you know life is busy and time goes by.

the other day i saw a note attached on my mailbox. so i went and got it. it was a hand written note which said:

"this area of homes have been known for its clean and neat appearance. however we have a few neighbors who could improve in this category. such as - garbage cans in or near the front yard, garbage beside the house which can be seen from the street and overgrown grass and weeds. let's take pride in our homes and yards and return it to be neat and clean again. thank you!"
neighbors

it was written on a piece of note paper that on the bottom in big print says "Make Things Happen".

we have officially been labeled the "white trash" of the neighborhood. nice. first reaction i am infuriated, embarrassed, annoyed, and physically upset. they couldn't even sign who they really were. i do however have a good idea of who i think it was. come tell me to my face. we don't have a neighborhood association, we have broken no laws, this is our property, we pay for it every month!! just because we are as old as your grandchildren doesn't mean you can reprimand us like we are children. i will admit it i hate weeding. i don't do it. the inside of my house is clean, and right now that's all i want to focus on. and i am glad that when my husband (who works very hard and goes to school twice a week) comes home, he wants to play with our children. even now after reading this note again i am upset and want to lash out on someone.

but you know what, what will that do? even though instead of waving now, i want to wave obscene hand gestures (i'm just being real here, i wouldn't really do that), and even though i want to put the bathtub in the middle of my yard and plant weeds in it, i will choose to just take the criticism with dignity, and accept the fact that some people just leave mean notes on your mailbox, and i don't have to burn the note in the middle of the road.

jon and i have been taking the "growing kids God's way" study on wednesday nights, looking for direction on how to raise our kiddos. i didn't know how much it was going to be for me as an adult. it talks about teaching your children biblical morals for living. why do we do the things we do. or why do we talk the way we talk. and it has been a few days since we received "the note" and there are some things that keep running through my mind (thank you holy spirit) and some are from this parenting class. "be courteous to all men" (titus 3:2) "do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself" (leviticus 19:18) "love is not rude" (1 cor. 13:5b) they also have a whole chapter on respecting age. alright, alright, i get the picture.

i like to lean towards the verses in romans when it talks about treating your enemy kind "in doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head". yeah, burning coals. but that would be wrong motives in being nice. (crap) "love must be sincere" (romans 12:9a)

so yeah, it is incredibly annoying to receive such a note, and yeah, we should probably through the bathtub away, obviously it is upsetting the "neighbors", but the bottom line is - we cannot control what other people say or think, but we can control how we respond, especially in our case when we have little eyes and ears watching us.