Dear Kaleid Ladies,
If you’ve been with us awhile, you know Kaleid women like to cycle through opportunities to see ourselves, see others, and see our communities through new lenses. In this way, we allow God to help us to envision His “kingdom come” in our lives and in others’ lives with more clarity and actionability.
This Kaleidoscope of new lenses allows us to engage the God’s rich landscape of beauty in the people we interact with every day. So, we are women of contemplation and action. We are women of perspective and purpose. We are women of small changes and big dreams. And, we’re glad you’re with us on the journey!
Today we start a new set of emails that will be other-focused and action-oriented. Basically, the premise is that we follow Jesus, loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, by practicing basic hospitality and by sharing listening-spaces with those in proximity to us. So, we’re going to issue a few neighbor-loving, intentional-listening challenges to ourselves in the coming weeks.
Our challenge this week is straight up: have some neighbor-friends (people you know sort of but not really, and people you live close to) over for a crock pot dinner. Just see what happens...maybe games will break out, perhaps recipes will be exchanged, and maybe common ground will be covered.
You might find it better than you imagined, or it may be awkward. But you will have staked out neighboring space in your own home, and at a minimum you’ll have a new perspective on how to pray for a deeper presence of God’s love in your neighbor’s life.
Try making conversational space asking some simple questions around the table like, “What’s new for you this fall?” or, “How did you end up living in this part of the world?” or, “How did you meet your spouse?” Or, if you have a small gaggle of neighbors over, you could even mine this list of ice-breaker questions or this one to choose some conversation starters to print out and answer around the table. Intentional conversation has a way of speaking to the deeper places in people’s hearts, reminding them that it’s possible to know they are seen, known, loved, and understood by their Creator.
I John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” Loving our neighbor with simple conversation and a simple meal reminds everyone at the table of the gracious power of love, being made more and more complete as we practice the art of being neighbors.
Blessings on you today,
The Kaleid Team
P.S. We’d love to hear from you on our survey as we look toward Kaleid’s content and programming in 2020!
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