How to Show Kindness to Neighbors

Recently my husband and I were baking cookies when we realized we had all the ingredients except the flour. Since we'd just returned from the grocery store, neither of us felt like driving back, so I called up one of our neighbors to ask if we could borrow some. Being the great neighbor and friend that she is, she said yes and to come right over.

That neighbor is just one of the few neighbors I know in my neighborhood, and the reason we are friends is because she was willing to get to know me. She found out my name and invited me over to her house; how could I say no to such a friendly gesture? Ever since then I have treasured her as a valuable neighbor, but I've asked myself how am I showing kindness to the other neighbors around me?

I hope for your sake that you have good neighbors, but regardless of how your neighbors act, have you thought about how are you as a neighbor? Whether or not you've introduced yourself or even made eye contact with your neighbors, how considerate have you been towards them - or do you never even ponder how your actions can hugely affect the lives of others around you? Perhaps you already are considerate towards your neighbors, and that is great. But some of us could use some reminders, including myself. Here are some ways that all of us can show kindness to our neighbors - loving them as ourselves:

Think about your neighbors when parking in your assigned parking spot. Did you park well within the lines or are you crookedly over-parking into his spot? Are you willing to move your car once the engine is off, just to be considerate towards your neighbors?

Do you put your trash out on the curb days before trash pick-up day or are you tidy and respectful of the appearance of your property and put trash out only the day it'll be picked up? Your neighbors might not notice how diligent you are to keep the schedule of trash pick-up, but they will probably notice if you aren't.

Do you listen to your music as loud as you can stand it, not caring who it bothers, or do you realize there are neighbors that might not appreciate it as much as you do? Of course we should feel free to listen to our favorite music genre, but still we shouldn't turn it up so loud that we share it with unwilling neighbors. Do you want to listen to the boom of their music through your walls?

Are you careful not to talk or sing too loudly whenever you desire to, or do you not even consider that your neighbors can probably hear you and probably don't want to? Talking too loud is something I am guilty of in my own house. Each day I struggle to tone my voice down a notch since the walls are thin - just because I want to do right by my neighbors.

Do you even realize that your children sometimes leave their ride-on toys or bouncy balls outside in your front yard, or are you completely conscious about tidying up your lawn's appearance each evening? Leaving toys all over the front yard does not boost the price of either your or your neighbor's property, nor does it make your neighbors happy when they nearly trip over the tricycle left in their walkways.

Do you wait to vacuum your carpet or hammer nails into the wall for picture hanging when your neighbors aren't home, instead of right when they arrive home from work and just want to relax and shed work headaches? These loud tasks don't have to bother your neighbors unless they just never leave the house when you're home.

If you have a pet, especially a dog, are you consistently picking up after he goes potty or do you leave a collection in walking or smelling distance to your neighbors? I experienced this situation just today when I took my daughter to play in our shared backyard. Not to exaggerate, but it looked like my neighbors hadn't cleaned up after their very lovely dog all winter long. We stayed far, far away from that area, and I would really appreciate some consideration of theirs one day real soon!

Do you attempt to make eye contact with and smile at your neighbors whenever you cross paths outside, or do you avoid meeting up with them so you can continue to ignore them? My life would be much more interesting if I took the time to get to know more people that I cross. Why wouldn't I want to make a new acquaintance? Why wouldn't you?

If you see your neighbors struggling to bring a heavy new piece of furniture into their home, do you offer to help them move it into their house or just turn away back to what you were doing previously? Helping with something heavy is one of the sweetest acts a neighbor can show.

Besides being considerate towards our neighbors, there are ways to reach out to them as well. Consider giving your neighbors a note or a Christmas card during the appropriate season, saying you're glad to have them as neighbors and you're there for them if they ever have a need. Maybe you'd like to even reach out to your neighbors by inviting them over for dinner once in a while to get to know them better.

By showing consideration and kindness to our neighbors, it will be hard for those neighbors to be at odds with us. They may greatly annoy us, but still we should do all we can to not annoy them back and be the better person. By loving our neighbors as ourselves, maybe they'll even learn from our consideration one day. After all, you never know when you might need a cup of flour or even have a real life emergency and wish you'd made your neighbors your friends when you had the opportunity to show them kindness.