When we moved into our Kentucky home from Oklahoma, we had just two neighbors to one side of us. On the other side was a wooded lot that we really enjoyed. Deer would sometimes run from the back 28 acres up through the woods beside us and cross the road and into the woods across the way. It was such a sight! I loved it!

So when the bulldozers came, knocking down trees in that lot for a new home, my husband and I were sick! There goes a little bit of our country, we thought. The quiet we enjoyed would be a little less quiet.

After we watched the trees come down, the land cleared and a new home erected, we met the single mother and her two little boys who moved in.

I loved being a mother, having raised two boys of my own. I had gone through heartache over the previous two years watching my precious, oldest son making unwise choices and walking away from everything good. God used a lot of things to heal my heart and bring joy back into my life, one being a little five-year-old boy.

He liked coming over to jump on our trampoline and I would watch and talk with him. He seemed to take a liking to me as I did to him. My new buddy had a real passion for wrestling, something I knew nothing about. He would bring his huge Elmo doll over and wrestle with him on my trampoline, teaching me the names of all the moves. He’d tell me about the real wrestlers he watched on television. Sometimes he would let Elmo get him down and I would have to start the countdown, but before reaching ten, my buddy would always make it back up. I would clap my hands and cheer him on. We sat under the trees, talking to each other and singing row, row, row your boat. (He was surprised I knew the song!) We sat on my sidewalk drawing and talking. We played basketball in my driveway. He was the cutest little guy and I truly enjoyed his company so much! He brought a smile to my face, a face that had not smiled much during the previous year.

I prayed for this little boy and his family. My own parents had divorced when I was about his age and I know what it feels like to have a family split apart. What joy I felt when I realized his dad had moved in and his family was whole again. This was just one more way of feeling hope that my own son would come back and be whole again.

It reminded me of what I already knew. God knows best. What I thought best was to leave the lot next door the way it was. But God knew this little boy would bring smiles to my face and some joy into my heart. I came to realize how greedy my previous thoughts had been. It wasn’t or isn’t all about me. I know the new home must have been a blessing for this family and I felt selfish for wanting that lot to stay full of trees and house-free.

So now when I feel I know best, I pray and remember the little guy next door and lay down my wants and desires before the Lord—praying to be willing to receive God’s best.

And you know what? God has left hundreds of trees around me to enjoy.

May I never begrudge someone their need, wants, or desires simply because of my own selfishness. Thank you, Lord, for my precious little friend next door. —submitted by Kris Bridgman, US