Can We Truly Love Our Enemies and Neighbors?

Bible, Women & Bathrobes Episode 19

Sermon on the Mount part 10

Summary

Tamara Anderson, Bonnie Randall, and Wendi Christensen discuss Matthew 5:43-47, the importance of loving enemies and neighbors in the Sermon on the Mount, emphasizing Jesus' emphasis on loving those who harm us despite cultural context and personal experiences. They also highlight the unique resilience and forgiveness displayed by children, and the challenges of forgiveness and understanding in adults. The wrap it up by encouraging listeners to invite Jesus into their lives to help them love others, even those who are different from them, and break the cycle of abuse and persecution. 

Other episodes mentioned

How God Helps Me Forgive and Be Reconciled with Others https://www.womenwarriorsoflight.com/blog/how-god-helps-me-forgive-and-be-reconciled-with-others

Main Takeaways

• From Tamara, “My biggest takeaway is thinking about to that young Tamara, and just the desire to be more childlike in my ability to love and forgive. I think we can look to our children in this. I see little kids, you know, if you're at the beach, or wherever you are, and all of a sudden they're best friends with the family that's right next to you and they're building a sandcastle together. And I just think it's so admirable. We can look to our children to see them emulating God's love. And so . . . that's probably my prayer, for me is to be more childlike in that regard. And more loving and seeing, you know, people just as children of God.”
• From Wendi, “The Lord loves us, like, just as we are trying and working. I think he loves us even in the process of trying to love people around us. . . I think the Lord has so much patience with us. So we can have patience with ourselves and we can have patience with loving people around us, like loving that enemy, which that which can be so hard. And sometimes that enemy is yourself and just try to love yourself. . . because we can also be our own worst enemy.”
• From Bonnie, “Leave the door open for forgiveness. You don't have to do it all right now, the first step is just believing that forgiveness is even possible someday.”

Today’s Podcast Hosts & Guests

Tamara K. Anderson

Tamara, founder of Women Warriors of Light, is a dynamic speaker, award winning author, and a podcaster. She is driven by her Christian faith to inspire faith in Jesus Christ. Alongside her husband, Justin, she navigates the joys and challenges of parenting four children with autism, ADHD, and mental health hurdles. You can find out more about Tamara on her website: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/

Bonnie Randall

Bonnie Randall is a wife, mother, trainer, speaker, actress, copywriter, heart centered life coach and has also been a business and marketing consultant for over 20 years. Her real passion is to help people grow as individuals and teach them how to resolve limiting beliefs. Bonnie enjoys teaching about mental health, abuse prevention and recovery classes. She runs a trauma recovery support group and YouTube channel called, Come Off Conqueror, which helps survivors of abuse find Christ centered healing. Find out more at: https://www.youtube.com/@comeoffconqueror

Wendi Christensen, LCSW
Wendi is the co-founder of Women Warriors of Light. In addition to being a wife and mother, she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 28 years of experience. Wendi is an intuitive counselor helping individuals release pain, renew hope, and restore light through forgiveness. You can find out more about Wendi on her website: https://wendichristensencounseling.com/

Transcript 

Tamara Anderson  0:00 

Who do you love? Do you love your friends? Do you love your family? How about your neighbors? And what about your enemies? Ooh. We're going to talk about these important verses in the Sermon on the Mount today, and how they apply to us in our daily lives where there's so much hatred being spewed all the time. Stay tuned.

Tamara Anderson  0:29 

Welcome to Bible, Women and Bathrobes the podcast where faith meets comfort. Join us Tuesday and Thursday mornings as the gals from Women Warriors of Light and their guests, Don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. From Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount. We explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood, and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments. tune in live or at your leisure as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.

Tamara Anderson  1:10 

Welcome to another episode of Bible, Women and Bathrobes. I'm your host Tamara K. Anderson, and joining me is my co host, Bonnie Randall. Hi, Bonnie.

Bonnie Randall  1:20 

Good morning, ladies.

Tamara Anderson  1:21 

And also my wonderful co founder of Women Warriors of Light, Wendi Christensen, thanks for being here, Wendi.

Wendi Christensen  1:28 

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Tamara Anderson  1:31 

And we are so excited. We've been kind of going through the Sermon on the Mount just a few little verses at a time over the past many episodes. And today we're at the end, we're finally at the end of Matthew chapter five has taken us so many episodes to get through this. But it's good because we've really been able to dive deep and kind of be able to modernize what Jesus is saying here. So it applies to us today.

Tamara Anderson  1:58 

So today we're in Matthew chapter five, or we're going to start in verse 43. And probably get through about 47. Today, we'll leave the perfection for the next episode. But let's read it says, "Ye have heard that it hath been said that thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate find enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you."

Tamara Anderson  2:34 

So I'm just going to pause there. I know that's only in the first two verses. And let's just talk about this great commandment. And he's kind of up leveling you saying, you've been told to love your neighbor, hate your enemy, which is just how we're wired, I think. And then he's telling us, here's the up level, love your enemies, bless them that curse you. And I noticed that there is a distinction, especially for people who have been on the end of abuse, that at the very end of the verse, he says, Pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you. So I thought that that was we have talked about that in previous episodes as well. Any thoughts there? Bonnie? Let's kick it off with you.

Bonnie Randall  3:27 

Well, yeah, well, the first thing I thought was, oh, here it is, again.

Tamara Anderson  3:34 

Yeah, he's really driving this point home, right?

Bonnie Randall  3:37 

He couldn't just say it once, but apparently so important that we had to repeat himself five minutes later. And so as I got to thinking why, right? Why did he repeat himself if it's must clearly be that important? And so I got thinking about the 10 commandments and the Jewish law, and just were these people where they were coming from culturally and I found a cross reference to Leviticus 19, where it's talking about loving your neighbor and how to love your neighbor. In verse 18, says, "Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord." So the interesting part to note is the, "against the children of thy people." They took that and ran with it.

Bonnie Randall  4:37 

And the Jewish (oh my gosh, yeah, it's way too early) Pharisees and whoever their leaders were added the part of hating your enemy. And so they culturally thought these are two equal laws loving thy neighbor and loving thy enemy. And boy did they! Right you look at some of the things that they did early on that were hating their fellow neighbors that were just right across the pond, right, and the other countries and Canaanites, and just Samaritans and all these things in culturally, things, one up the eye for an eye, tooth for tooth kind of thing.

Bonnie Randall  5:27 

And I love that he is correcting the Mosaic Law and so many of these scriptures on the Sermon on the Mount, and here he is doing it again. And explaining to us as citizens of the kingdom of God, if we want to be a citizen, it's not good enough to just love people that are easy to love people that are like you. But you also have to like those people. Those who oppose you, those who don't think like you, those who don't look like you, right? And I'm oh then, my mind ran wild with that one. So I'm curious to hear what Wendi thinks.

Tamara Anderson  6:09 

Wendi?

Wendi Christensen  6:10 

Well, it's interesting, Bonnie, that you've brought that up, because that was the first thought I had was, what was the Jewish law, that he would be teaching this right, that he would be almost countering probably what they believed and what they thought and what they felt. Because, yeah, they despised some of those others, like the Samaritans and what they consider the Gentiles and did not like their neighbors, and almost thought themselves better than, Right.

Wendi Christensen  6:44 

And how many times do we see that in our society today, where we think they're, we're better than or even our next door neighbor, or we think we're better than the people that we see on social media or the television or whatever, to be able to pause and to think we have to love them. Like, that's, that's a lot.

Wendi Christensen  7:06 

And especially when we're talking enemies, you know, so many things come to mind, especially, you know, doing therapy, and I work with people who have such difficult stories in their lives. And to be able to think about loving your enemy or blessing people that curse them, or that are not good to them or abuse them. That's a big, tall order to ask.

Wendi Christensen  7:32 

And I think that will go back to some of those previous lessons that we learned about forgiveness. And I think as we're looking at it, and as we continue looking at it, it's almost like Christ knew that we can live a higher law. And he not only knew we could, but he believes that we can, like he believes that you can live a higher law, and it's not. And I think the biggest thing is when we have people that have maybe hurt us. It's not that I'm better than them.

Wendi Christensen  8:07 

But if I really feel the love of Jesus Christ in my life, then I can rise above where I'm at and actually love them. If I feel loved by Him by Christ, it makes it so much easier for me to love those enemies, right to be able to if I understand who I am, as a person in my relationship with him, then I think I can love my enemies, but I can't do it. I would have a really hard time if I didn't feel Jesus Christ love and understanding of me and who I am to rise above where I'm at Emotionally, I guess, I would say are where people are at emotionally when they have gone through really difficult things to love those enemies. But once you feel His love, then it makes it so much easier to actually love other people around you, and especially people who've wronged you, I think,

Tamara Anderson  9:00 

yeah. I was thinking how much easier it is for children to do this. Do you know what I mean? I mean, I think back like when I was young girl, my family moved to Argentina. And we happen to be there. This is dating me, but during the Falkland Island war, which happened in 1982. And the challenge with that is I was going to school there. I finally just picked up on Spanish and I'm starting to integrate into you know, this society of cute little Argentine children.

Tamara Anderson  9:34 

And this war starts and basically the Argentines attacked these, the Falkland Islands, which were there just off the coast of Argentina. And they had been inhabited by Great Britain for over a century. And Argentina is like, Oh, they're ours. We're totally claiming them and I tell you what, the Argentines just right rallied around this. I mean, we were sending chocolates to their, to the soldiers who are fighting in this war. It didn't last very long.

Tamara Anderson  10:09 

But United States kind of was like we're neutral, you know, but because I was from America, I became one of the enemies. even though I and that's one of the crazy things is and so my little new friends were just like, oh, well Tamara's American, you know, from the United States. And so she's one of our enemies, and I was bullied. And there was one particular girl. She was not very nice, like she would beat up on me at recess. And I just remember thinking, like, I have anything to do with national politics. Do you know what I mean?

Tamara Anderson  10:50 

I have no way of doing this. Well, in the middle of all this. I turned nine. And my mom's like, well, let's have a birthday party. And maybe we can invite your classmates. And of course, my mom knew what was going on. She's like, do you want to invite that mean, girl? And I'm like, you know, trying to think, What would Jesus do? You know, and so I invited her to come.

Tamara Anderson  11:16 

And I just think, like, as an adult, now, I don't think I could do that. Do you know what I mean? But as a child, these teachings of Jesus, I was just more moldable and more, I don't know, more. I listened, I guess children just listened to God's Spirit a little bit more, we don't have those prejudices that we've learned from decades of experiencing life, and well, you hurt me. So that's it! You know, your chances are done. You know, and, and so I just started thinking, Well, what makes it that children are so much more likely to love and forgive versus us as adults? I don't know. Any thoughts on that, guys?

Wendi Christensen  12:03 

I think we're more open as children, to seeing all sides of everything. And I think as we get older, we become more clouded. And maybe a little less accepting of others because you become more opinionated. And that can be I don't know, I mean, this isn't everything, this is just some thoughts that are just coming right now. But it just seems like kids are just so they're a lot more open to change. And they're more resilient when things come that are hard.

Wendi Christensen  12:42 

You know, I look when kids go through hard and difficult things, they can pull through pretty quickly because they're so resilient. My son had an accident on Monday. And it was pretty traumatic for us as a family. And as his mom watching him go through this. He was so much more resilient than I was, like, he was able to go through the kind of the trauma of what was happening, have he had an accident, and he was dealing with it way better than I was, I would say, just because he's just so much more resilient and open to things.

Wendi Christensen  13:16 

I think that's why Christ loved children, because they were so teachable, and moldable and, and open to things. And I think as we grow older, we become a lot more opinionated and a lot more close a bit to, to things. And so it takes a lot of openness. I don't know, Bonnie, what do you think?

Bonnie Randall  13:36 

I mean, I agree with that. 100%. And I think we have more programming, right? Little kids haven't been on the earth as long and so they don't have those same deep trenches of neural pathways that are creating those false paradigms and those perspectives that we carry as adult. And I just had a friend call me the other day about something that happened with one of their kids, and it was a they wanted to pick my brain about child abuse. And I've done a ton of training on Child Abuse Prevention.

Bonnie Randall  14:23 

At one point I thought I was going to start a a program to help parents teach them in a fun way with like games and things like that. And anyway, we were talking and he was so worried that his daughter was going to be scarred for life about what happened. And and I could feel the emotion just pouring out of him. This fatherly love sphere because he knows all the repercussions, right?

Bonnie Randall  14:57 

Like as an adult, you've seen the things play out, you know the consequences of things. And as a kid, you don't have that perspective like you do as an adult, right. And on top of that, as an adult, we have all of these stories and life experiences that create these, these perspectives.

Bonnie Randall  15:19 

And I gave him the advice, the one like your reaction was spot on staying calm and handling it calmly, was huge, because as a parent who freaks out, that will heighten their state of fight or flight, right and like, make them realize, oh, this was bad, right? And then that changes and that can create our trauma response can create some effects on them, right.

Bonnie Randall  15:50 

And so anyway, long story short, the advice was, and I'm just sharing this because I feel like parents need to hear this. And we just don't know what to do. And we're in the situation. And I wasn't planning on sharing this, this is just what's coming. So here we go.

Bonnie Randall  16:08 

But I said call Child Protective Services. And it's called different things in different states, ours is DCFS. And you can talk to them anonymously, you don't have to give them your name. You don't have to give them any of your information. You don't have to tell them the names, or people involved. But you can just say this is a situation, I need some advice, what would you suggest we do? And then based on what they tell you determine how you want to act. You can also tell them your name and tell them your situation. But say I want to remain anonymous, right?

Bonnie Randall  16:43 

But basically, and I've heard the same story, multi multiple times, as I'm sure Wendi has to where it's child on child, and that other child the perpetrating child had had it happened to them, and so on, so forth. And it becomes this trickle effect. And I said, here's the problem. And I've heard this multiple times. If we don't stop it now, this trend could continue in your neighborhood.

Bonnie Randall  17:12 

So you have this amazing opportunity to be a chain breaker. And I use that word a lot. And I feel like that that is one of the messages here. And Sermon on the Mount is that we have the opportunity as citizens of his kingdom, to be chain breakers. We can stop the abuse, we can stop the persecution, we can stop the bad behavior, whatever it is, generational addictions, generational abuse, generational poverty, it doesn't matter what the chain is, we can stop it. And we stop it with the atonement.

Bonnie Randall  17:52 

So then my next advice was, find a way to heal and to forgive, you might want to talk to a therapist or life coach or whatever. But we continued with the conversation, I gave him some more advice. But as a as someone who does work with abuse victims on the daily, I know how hard this is, when we have been when we have brushed up against the devil, literally. And gone through those depths of sorrow and pain, that seem completely unforgivable. Right, how do you forgive someone who has taken away your innocence? How do you forgive someone who has inadvertently killed a loved one or whatever the story is, right? Like those are hard, hard things! And the answer is we don't do it alone. We find help. And we have, luckily, the greatest help of all, which is Christ.

Bonnie Randall  19:06 

I know when he's talked about this before, about using the atonement and using him to help. And for me personally, it wasn't until I finally let Christ in that I started healing from my abuse that I had suffered as a 27 year old and made all the difference for me.

Tamara Anderson  19:34 

I love this. Well, thanks for diving down that rabbit hole with me. Um, I just agree 100% with everything you guys have said there. Let's go on to verse 45. And I think this kind of gives us God's perspective on who is our neighbor he says, "That you may be the children of your Father. which is in heaven, where he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth the rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if you salute your brethren, only what do ye more than others do not even publicans the same?"

Tamara Anderson  20:26 

And so I think what he's saying here is, I God, love all my children, you know, and I'm going to send down blessings in the sunshine and the rain, to everyone, right? Things that sustain life, I'm going to send them out to all my children. And then he just says, it's, it's not hard basically, to love those that love you. The challenge here, and this is the up level, right, that He's inviting us to do is to love people who aren't the same as us. And that is tricky. That is tricky.

Tamara Anderson  21:14 

And I know we've discussed this a little bit when we discussed forgiveness. But I think it kind of goes back to what you were saying about praying and inviting Jesus in. And having him help us gradually make that transition. Because it's not something especially as adults that we do, snap our fingers, Wah! all sudden, I love everybody, you know. But I know that one of my prayers for the last couple of years has been "help me to see others as you see them." And that has helped kind of broaden my perspective, especially when I have unkind feelings towards someone. Any thoughts there? Wendi we'll start with you this time.

Wendi Christensen  22:07 

You know, just just as you and Bonnie have been talking, and talking about, you know, loving people who don't treat you well, or that you disagree with even, you don't have to agree with someone to love them. I don't, I don't have to agree with what somebody thinks or believes in order for me to love them. And, and it's also okay, that it takes time. Like if it takes my heart some time, to love and accept somebody, especially if it's somebody who maybe hurt has hurt me, and maybe they know it, maybe they don't even know it, right? Maybe it's been something that they don't have any idea and it's not even intentional, but it's hurt me. And it's okay for me to pray for that help to love them. And to ask for help to love them.

Wendi Christensen  23:01 

Or to see this that like you were saying Tamara to see this situation, the way that I need to or even to learn, you know, to learn from experience, Bonnie, like you were sharing because sometimes working with parents who've been in similar situations, why when they're looking at why is this happening, That it's okay to take some time to really process it and to really pray for that understanding and how to learn how to grow from it. Because I truly believe that all of our experiences lead to a better understanding of us, right?

Wendi Christensen  23:35 

I got to understand myself, how do I react to people? How do I respond to people? How am I becoming a person that I like? That I actually love through these experiences and through these challenges, and it's okay but take some time. It's okay if if I grow through the process as well. And then I lean upon and pray for heavenly Father to help me if I'm don't want to love somebody, I don't want to accept something. That's okay, at least maybe he can help me to find love in my heart and some kindness towards them, even if I don't agree with what's happened or agree with them or agree with the circumstances, because it helps me to become a better person. Overall, right?

Wendi Christensen  24:19 

I don't think Christ agreed with the the publicans and the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He didn't agree with them on stuff. And was teaching absolute opposite of what they were practicing. But he could still show them love. And he still did show them love and understanding. Right? So and was teaching them new ways to think. So it's okay if it takes time. And it's okay if I just do it little by little. And I think that's going to be part of the next episode. You know, where if that perfection in some part of becoming that we're becoming

Tamara Anderson  24:53 

Yeah,

Wendi Christensen  24:54 

people and it's okay to pray for forgiveness when I don't have any in my heart, and it's okay to put a boundary in place if I'm like, I don't agree with that at all, I can love you as a person, but I don't agree at all with what you're doing. And, and I can, I can still cut off a toxic relationship. And oh, you know, as an individual, right, I can shut down.

Wendi Christensen  25:14 

I was talking to somebody last week and she was sharing some really harsh abuse that she experienced with her family growing up-- just horrendous abuse. And my first question was, I hope that you've cut off relationships. And she said, Yes, it's taken me some time, but I have. And I'm, I was, I'm like, that's good. You should be this is such an unhealthy relationship. So toxic, so Yuck, that that's okay, too. And guess what? If she can find it in her heart to love her and to see her parents from a whole different perspective, that's also keeping her safe, that I feel like that's also living this higher law. Right? I mean, there's so many factors that play into things, but I think it's who we become in the process that matters the most.

Tamara Anderson  26:00 

Yeah, Bonnie,

Bonnie Randall  26:03 

I love having a therapist on the show. It's great therapy for me.

Bonnie Randall  26:14 

I always joke like, because I run a support group for women who have been abused. And, like, feel like I'm the blind leading the blind, right? Like, just because I've gone through some training ladies doesn't mean I have 100% figured out. I'm but I think it's one okay, there's like 9000 thoughts swirling around my head. Alright.

Bonnie Randall  26:41 

First, I'd like to say go back and watch the other episode, Tamara, maybe you can link it in the show notes to where we talk about forgiveness and reconciliation. That concept will blow your mind if you haven't heard it yet. And I'm telling you, it is like the key to starting to heal wounds of this magnitude is really, really important. So for the sake of not repeating ourselves. I really, really, really want to encourage everyone to go back and understand the difference between those two things. Because in one of the episodes, we again, come back to it because we talked about reconciliation, because he does say reconcile, and I can't remember which verses is but it's during the Sermon on the Mount.

Bonnie Randall  27:32 

And reconciling especially in these situations, like when we use just describing is nearly impossible. We can't reconcile with someone who's not willing to be healthy and safe and right. And anyway, so lots of thoughts. And I go back and watch those two, I think it's two episodes, actually. Now I think about it on on those two things.

Bonnie Randall  27:57 

The other thing I got to thinking about is what an interesting month for us to be doing this episode. And Tamara loves me because I always bring it the wild card and talk about things that are a little racy, controversial, but I as our social media is going to be flooded with lots of posts about things that maybe as a Christian, you don't agree with. I really hope that we can keep the scriptures in mind. Because like, whether you're saying we don't have to agree to love.

Bonnie Randall  28:39 

And I really feel like sometimes we as Christians have let the day what's the word, dichotomy of the two laws, loving your neighbor and serving God? Sometimes they seem like they're in conflict over each other. But they're not. We can serve our God and stay fast to our beliefs and teach the doctrine and believe the doctrine and all those things and still be kind. What a revolutionary concept. We can still be kind and loving to people who don't agree we have politics we have it's an election year, right?

Bonnie Randall  29:26 

So there's a lot of those things floating around. There's Juneteenth is coming up. It's pride month. There's so many things going on right now. We have Israel versus Palestine. We still have the Russia and Ukraine war going on. Right? We have so many things that could divide us as a society.

Bonnie Randall  29:47 

And yet, we're being asked to be unified, and to be loving and kind and forgiving and all those things. So I myself need to look at an aside and say, Who have I not forgiven? Which is what I've been doing all week. And I didn't realize there was such a list that I need to work on. I should probably scheduled an appointment with Wendi. And don't have a forgiveness, like process. I remember I talked about it one of the other episodes.

Wendi Christensen  30:22 

I do.

Bonnie Randall  30:24 

And anyway, like, I just got internally thinking, Who do I need to forgive? Why do I need to let go of what's keeping me from living this higher law and having a pure heart? And, man, I've got some work to do. I really do. And one thing that stands out, and this will be my last, because I know we need to move up. Sorry, Tamara, so maybe this should be my takeaway.

Bonnie Randall  30:50 

But I got to thinking about this talk that I had heard a long time ago about. This woman had gone through a terrible divorce. And she had gone to her church leader and she said, I'm really struggling. I don't know what to do. I can't seem to forgive him. I know I should. I know it's a commandment, but I can't seem to get there.

Bonnie Randall  31:11 

And the church leaders advice was essentially, I'm totally paraphrasing here, essentially, leave the door open for forgiveness. You don't have to do it all right now, the first step is just believing that forgiveness is even possible someday. And I remember as a young teenager hearing that I was driving, and I just started bawling. Like, I think at one point I had to pull over because I couldn't even see I was crying so hard, because I was going through something really, really difficult. And I didn't see that I could forgive this person, like at all. This is way before the the stuff that happened later.

Bonnie Randall  31:55 

And that advice gave me so much comfort--hearing that I didn't have to forgive all at one time, that I could do it incrementally and gradually, and eventually get there. I was like, Okay, I'm not even sure I really have the ability right now to leave the door open.

Bonnie Randall  32:16 

But that's what I'm gonna pray for right now is just to have a openness and a belief that it's even possible. And when that came, I was then able to be around that person for like, five minutes that was about the just, actually, I think it probably started with like texting that person and then like, dropping something off of their house, and then being around them for five minutes. And we eventually worked our way up where I could spend entire afternoons with that person, it took a long, long time to get there.

Bonnie Randall  32:50 

And even now, twenty, we'll I'd have been at least 16. So 40 You guys do the math. Those years later, it's too early for math. It took, it's still not 100%, It's still not. Right, there are still things that that person does to trigger me to take me back to stuff that had happened, right? Like, there are still layers of those wounds.

Bonnie Randall  33:21 

And I really appreciate that Wendi brought up that it's okay, if it takes time. And I want to add to that. When we get to heaven, we will be able to continue to forgive. We'll be able to continue our progression and our forward movement. And we won't have the tabernacle of this flesh anymore. holding us back. So maybe the next life? I don't know, maybe it's harder. I don't I don't really know. I'm not dead. So I can't tell you. But I do feel like I want a second what She said that. Sometimes these things do take time. And if we work at it, little by little, you'll be amazed to see the miracles that happen.

Tamara Anderson  34:12 

Love it. When do you what's your takeaway from today's episode?

Wendi Christensen  34:20 

I just I think that the Lord has that he loves us. Like, just as we are trying and working. I think he loves us even in the process of trying to love people around us like Bonnie was just talking about. I think the Lord has so much patience with us. So we can have patience with ourselves and we can have patience with loving people around us, like loving that enemy, which that which can be so hard. Like Bonnie was saying I think is it takes also patients with us right through the whole entire process. And sometimes that enemy is yourself and just try to love yourself. You know Because we can also be our own worst enemy.

Wendi Christensen  35:02 

And I think we'll talk more about that in the next episode. But I think if anything, it's just just trying, like, like Bonnie said, I love the opening the door to opening the door to it, you know, with people that are different than us or think differently than us, just like in Christ time, that's what he was trying to teach, you know, to open your minds to the Samaritan woman or the Gentile man or, or whoever it is just least open the door to understanding them and understanding their story and their situation.

Wendi Christensen  35:34 

And, you know, when when I'm teaching kids about bullying, usually, one thing I'll say is, they've got something inside of them that's causing them to bully, we don't know, we don't always understand it. You don't have to like the bully and you don't have to, you don't have to treat that bully wonderfully. But at least understand that there's probably something going on inside of them that there that's the reason they're bullying, you know, I can be at least understanding of that.

Tamara Anderson  36:02 

Love it. My biggest takeaway is thinking about to that young Tamara, and just the desire to be more childlike in my ability to love and forgive. I think we can look to our children in this. You know, I see little kids, you know, if you're at the beach, or wherever you are, and all of a sudden they're best friends with the family that's right next to you and they're building a sandcastle together. And I just think it's so admirable. We can look to our children to see them emulating God's love. And so maybe that's that's probably my prayer, for me is to be more childlike in that regard. And more loving and seeing, you know, people just as children of God.

Tamara Anderson  36:59 

Awesome. Well, thanks for joining us this morning. On our deep discussion on loving our neighbor. Just know it's possible start where you are. God loves you. Have a blessed day.

Tamara Anderson  37:13 

Thanks for tuning in to Bible, Women and Bathrobes hosted by Women Warriors of Light. We've loved exploring the stories of remarkable women are the teachings of the Savior God with you. If today's episode brought someone special to mind, be sure to spread the word. And don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of inspiration and sisterhood. Just a friendly reminder, all opinions we share are entirely personal as we are trying to decipher and apply Bible teachings just like you are. Until next time, stay faithful. And may Your journey be blessed and illuminated by God's love.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai