Waving the White Flag

(Just a random picture of me & my dog Gus on vacation. We seem to pose like this a lot!)

Anyway, so in the neverending saga of the neighbor lady files I have finally closed the case. I got upset over something stupid the other day she did & I ratted out James about it & he said he would talk to her for me about it. Yeah, I know I took the weeney way out of that one.
So he went into the Lion's den to try to smooth things over & it only made things worse. She isn't a big fan of me! (as if that was a surprise)
But a lot of mean things were said about me & that was a tough one to stomach when you know someone really doesn't like you. What hurts the most is hearing how she thinks I don't treat Noah well & I don't represent Christ like the sticker on my car says. (I have a sticker on my car that says RJC- Represent Jesus Christ)
Ok.
In some ways I deserved that because I'll be the first one to admit I don't represent Christ to her very well at all. But the whole not being a good parent thing is a low blow. I think we say a lot of mean things out of anger though.

So they all agreed that I needed to sit down with them & talk all this "stuff" over. And I got to thinking about it & decided I wasn't going to do that. I just can't do it. I'm not good at confrontation like that & especially if I know I'm going to be attacked-- I'll attack right back & you might as well forget I'm even a Christian at that point!
I decided I would write a letter to her again, but this time be the bigger person.
(Rachel you might remember that conversation with Chipo, me & you that day about neighbor lady-chipo would have been proud because I finally did what she said)

So I sat down & started playing some worship music & said ok God here it goes let me get this right this time. And I penned a perfect letter. I was surprised at myself personally! No I didn't save the note but I mainly apologized. I didn't point the finger & say anything about the things she has done. I used a lot of "I" statements.
I ministered when I could and I layed my boundaries.
Basically I told her we would never be friends like how she probably wants us to be, but we'd always serve the same God & she'll have to deal with me not only on earth but in heaven too! JUST KIDDING!! I didn't say the last part I promise! :)

I told this story about how God puts people in our lives to teach us things about ourselves that we wouldn't normally recognize unless God had put that person in our lives. And that person might rub us the wrong way like sandpaper always grating on us. I enclosed a piece of sandpaper too so she would have something to remind her that God will put people in our lives to rub us, but it teaches us something in the end.
Like how an oyster gets sand into its shell & it rubs & rubs until it makes a pearl. From something irritating & annoying to the oyster eventually makes something of value to someone else one day.

I also talked about how when Iron sharpens Iron like the scripture says to sharpen it you have to come at the iron at an angle or it won't sharpen. So it has to come from a different point of view for the sharpening to occur. (that wasn't mine that was something I heard at church)

And I did mention that Noah is our son & how we choose to raise our son is what our son needs no matter how much she disagrees. She needs to respect that & accept it. That's just how it goes.

It was such a release to do things the right way. I know that there will be some misunderstanding that I'm trying to avoid being near her, but I think for me I'm doing something wise. Thankfully my letter passed the James test & I ran it by another mom who said it was balanced. Whew!
Now it just has to be delieved (not by me!) and hopefully this will be over with.
somehow I doubt it, but I feel like my hands are clean about this situation & now its in her court to decide how she's going to react.

Sorry that there probably won't be anymore good stories to read in my blog about that! I'll work on getting on someone else's nerves! Just kidding!!!