Loving Our Mailman
Our church is studying the fruit of the Spirit this summer so I've been going over it with Reaghan at home. Last week we talked about love and it got me thinking how I am not great at loving the people on the margins of my life. My home group, our church community, even friends who do not believe in God but who I have a connection with, are much more easy to relate to. I've been trying to think about who these people might be. Our neighbors for sure, clerks at stores, people very different from me culturally, our mail carrier, etc.
Our mailman at our old house was just the best, and such a big help with shipping questions when I was starting my shop. I would chase him down the street sometimes just to give him a package so I didn't have to leave the house! Ha! He dealt with a lot and I really feel for them...they have such an exhausting job.
In our new neighborhood, we have a mail lady! She is the sweetest and talked with us the first week we moved in. It's already been up to 100 degrees here in Texas these past couple of weeks, so I know she is just dying out there. I wanted to do something sweet for her since she probably needs the encouragement and extra water.
We picked up some bottled water from the store and tied a simple note to them with ribbon. Very simple! Then we just slipped it into our mailbox in the morning, since she usually comes around 11 am. I'm hoping that meant it stayed cool. If you're doing this in a really hot area like we are, I definitely suggest popping them in the refrigerator for a couple hours before putting in the mailbox, so they stay cool longer! No one likes hot water! Be careful of the condensation though and a paper note, you may need to put the note next to the water and not tied to it. I even thought that if your mailbox isn't big enough to hold something this big, you could also put a little note in there that says "Come to our front porch for a surprise!" ... or something like that :)
I had been trying to think of ways to bridge the gap between our family and our neighbors or the people who serve us. I'm hope this act of love will lead the way to a deeper relationship with her, and that we'll have the chance to love on her more in the future!