Living With Other People

Living with other people* has taught me so much in 21 years:

#1.  Don't worry or be afraid.
#2.  Talking honestly and a lot is important! Consider the affect your words have on others.
#3.  Laugh, dream.
#4.  Be gentle and patient with animate and inanimate objects.
#5.  Be a lady.
#6.  Work hard and be disciplined.
#7.  People will talk differently, do things differently and like different things than you and that's OK.
#8.  You can't make anybody do anything, you have to respect everyone.
#9.  People have different perspectives that will surprise you and help immensely in life.
#10. God is love and His greatest expectation of us is love.  Love is patience, kindness, forgiveness, mercy, trust, protection.

There's so much more but this is the tidy, 10.

*I live in an "intentional" Christian community.  We live on about 120 acres of beautiful country in mobile homes.  Though it is now one family per house on average, growing up I have lived in houses with one or more families plus grandparents and single people in the mix at times.  Our number one belief is that God wants us to be a gracious and kind family seeking Him in everything.