Turning the other cheek

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you"

Matthew 5:38-42, NIV

 

If there is one thing that I admire about my husband, I would have to say it's his respect for elders. I have seen it times and times again where my husband would give the utmost respect for the elders even if they were rude, bitter and filled with much rage towards him. Mr M would always remain a gentleman, quick to forgive and forget and continues to show love where I on the other hand would be quite the opposite.

Here's a story about Mr M who truly practices the scripture above whereby Jesus tells his disciple to turn the other cheek towards your enemies if they've already given you a cheek (meaning show more love and not revenge even if they have shown and continues to show much hatred).

You see, we live in this house that has two sets of neighbours who are both elderlies. One set, a Chinese couple in their 70's whom we get along quite well with. The other neighbour on the contrary is an Italian man in his 80's who has given us much grief from the day we moved into the neighbourhood.

Before we moved into our house 2.5yrs ago, we spent quite a large sum of money renovating the house in preparation for bb Z's arrival. We had just moved back from Singapore and so much still needed to be done in the house. So of course with the race against time, we knew it was our priority to ensure the renos inside our house was to be completed first which meant our front/backyard was highly neglected. One day, we received a letter in the mail , handwritten by some inconsiderate #$^@# fellow anonymous neighbour who was being cynical in their writing saying how they can not believe we could afford renovating the house and yet neglect the yard. Boy, I tell you at that time, I was a new mother preparing her 'nest'. I was highly emotional and highly sleep deprived (not a good combination for calming down that's for sure). As soon as I read the letter, I was ready to knock down every single house along our street to give them a piece of my mind. I mean a nice and understanding neighbour would at least write 'I understand you've spent so much money in renovating your home. So if you can not tidy up the yard, I am more than happy to lend a hand and here is my contacts etc'. Nope. Zilch. No sympathy. No help whatsoever! Only criticism filled with much rage in the letter.

Anyhow, a few months later, we finally got the fence up. The Italian next door had agreed to pay for the fence at first but when it was finally built, not only did he refuse to pay, he had also complaint to the council saying that it was too high and that it was blocking his 'view'. Oh by that time, I was ready to strangle politely ask him what his problem was. So this meant, we had to pay more money to get it shortened again. Double Sigh..

All this time, while Mrs M was losing sleep and had fumes coming out of her ears, Mr M on the other hand was as calm as the sea. He even told me 'don't worry about it. He is an old man. You should show more love and compassion..' What?!!! I was ready to strangle my husband too. Finally after much hounding from me, Mr M decided to knock on his door to retrieve the money he had owed us for the fence. He then told Mr M that he had lost his wife 6mths ago (due to old age) and now lives alone and can not possibly pay the full amount etc etc. So Mr M agreed for him to pay half (without consulting me first of course! Grrrrr!!). Mr M was completely empathetic towards him, sometimes too much compassion I think.

A few months later, I noticed Mr M became even nicer to our dreadful neighbour. He started to mow his lawn (and don't forget Mr M HATES DOING THE GARDENING!) What the?! We share the same nature strip as our neighbour however, our side is only about half a meter in length and the rest of his nature strip is at least 10metres in length! Mr M had mowed the whole strip for him! I was thinking to myself, has my husband gone completely mad? Why was he showing much kindness to a neighbour that has given us so much grief from the moment we moved in?

A few weeks later, the grass grew long again and guess what? our neighbour didn't repay Mr M's kindness at all. He couldn't even be stuffed mowing our 50cm nature's strip. And guess what else he did? This will truly shock you. Some of our junkmail had fallen out of our mailbox and fallen onto his nature's strip. Instead of picking it up, he decided to MOW all of the junkmail. When we got back from work, we found hundreds and thousands of tiny pieces of paper flying all over our street and on our yard. You should've seen me flare up then! There was no way you could sweep it from the grass cos it was all stuck in there! Once again, Mr M kept his cool and told me I must show 'love and compassion after all he is a lonely man'. I was ready to pengsan by then.

So for weeks and months, Mr M would always mow our terrible wonderful neighbour's lawn and he would never repay the favour until last August! Finally! Ever since we brought Davina home from the hospital (he must've heard her cries since D's room is facing towards the side of his house), he has been mowing our part of the lawn cos he must've known that we already have our handsful with the 2 kiddies! Can you believe it? Someone please shout Hallelujah!! This once cold blooded creature has turned into a warm hearted man. I was absolutely gobsmacked by his small gesture especially since I had experienced first hand just how hardened his heart was from day 1. And of course Mr M had to rub it in by saying 'see I told you.. when you show kindness and love to people, they will ultimately show kindness and love back'.

 

Righteo.. even if it takes 2yrs?!