“I’m cleaning my room,” says 5-year-old Joseph. “People need room to walk so they don’t trip. I’m not hurting anyone and that makes God happy!”

Whether you are 5 years old or 50, cleaning your room is always a challenge. It reminds me of what Phyllis Diller said: “Housework can’t kill you, but why risk it?”

“You have to be nice to your neighbors, which is whoever you see, or your enemies too,” says 8-year-old Sammy.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love God, but the second greatest (love your neighbor as yourself) is like the first (Mark 12:29-31). Have you ever wondered how loving your neighbor is like loving God? Also, does this include the neighbor who plays his stereo too loud or revs his motorcycle at 1:00am?

Loving your neighbor and loving your neighbor are two different things. God never commands us to love our neighbor. I don’t have to like my neighbor, his loud music, or his inconsiderate behavior to love him. All I have to know is that God loves my neighbor.

I know from the Bible that my neighbors are created in God’s image, even if that image is tainted by sin. However, Christ suffered and died for all my neighbors, even for those who openly rebel and punch him in the face.

Do I have in myself the capacity to love my neighbor as myself? I do not.

As a Christian, there is someone living in me who knows exactly how to love my neighbor. The apostle Paul referred to this heavenly inhabitant as “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). The indwelling Christ is not only the hope of future glory for every Christian, but he is also that hope of sanity in this present life.

Let’s be honest. There are some people who don’t like you, and there’s not much you can do to change their minds. In some situations, loving your neighbor may mean refraining from retaliating against a neighbor’s intentional behavior to annoy you.

God likes it when you allow him to love through you people you don’t even like. It’s easy to love people you like. It’s the stinkers that will push you to trust in God’s power and resources.

Only God can love the stinkers. After all, he loves you and me. Before God, we are all stinky. Our stench area may differ, but that doesn’t make the stench any less offensive to a holy God.

“I know I please God when I set the table for dinner, when I help my mom with her shopping and when I do my chores,” says 7-year-old Avery.

Yes, even the mundane becomes an opportunity to please God when you live a life empowered by the Lord. This is how the apostle Paul described living under an open heaven: “And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men” (Colossians 3:23).

Think about this: Sometimes people think of pleasing God as only as big as hearing God’s call to serve him on a faraway mission field. Most of the time, pleasing God comes in the form of the ordinary. If you live life before an open sky, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. You are living to please God, not just trying to get through the day.

Memorize this truth: Colossians 3:23 quoted above.

Ask yourself this question: As a Christian, have you allowed the indwelling presence of Christ to transform your ordinary world into a wonderland filled with opportunities to please God?