Loving my enemy

Well, maybe not loving exactly, but at least making an effort to be civil...

I have been away from the computer this week because I've been a Walker (a.k.a. chaperone) for E's cub scout daycamp. Lots of fun activities, songs, etc. The adventure culminated last night at the family picnic where E was awarded a certificate from the woman who taught water conservation (via bug identification) for finding the only Snipe Fly Larva of the entire week! ;-) Woo hoo! I was proud and he was thrilled to hear his name called to go up front for an award.

This week has been a challenge for me too. The Head Walker in our group is a woman with whom I have clashed in the past. She has an older son who is the same age as Little J (14) and they do not get along. To make a long story short, she and I have not spoken for the last two years. She'd said some pretty nasty things about Little J and I have had a hard time moving beyond that.

But I've been particularly moved by a lot of religious things I've read lately, particularly the book The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren. The idea of turning the other cheek and loving your enemies kept resonating with me. So I decided before the week started that I was going to make every effort to get along with this woman and not let the past cast a cloud on E's daycamp.

Now that camp is over, I would not say that we are best buddies or that we would even chit chat. But we did speak and at the end of the final picnic last night she said goodbye to me as I left. And I said goodbye to her. That was a HUGE step for both of us.

I think if we are truly to bring about the Kingdom of God as McLaren said, we have to start in our own backyards, right? Sometimes that is much more difficult than doing things for strangers.