Am I loving my neighbor?

God is working on my heart.  He's always working on me and lately I have been trying to be more aware of how He's teaching me.  I want to be kind and thoughtful of how others feel.  I want to live by the golden rule.  Easy to say and much harder to live out with your neighbors.

 Tom and I have neighbors who are trying my patience.  They are many in one house.....a fairly young couple with a 2 year old boy+ another young woman who is engaged to a young man + a dog. Tom and I welcomed these renters with a plate of cookies to say hello and introduce ourselves.  The man who answered the door looked at us like we had three heads each, basically took the cookies and closed the door.  Oh well, I felt that I had done as God was asking, I did my good deed.  As the months have moved forward, we have tried to be friendly but they are just not interested in a neighborly relationship.  They have not taken care of the property.  They are constantly parking in front of our house because they are too lazy to move cars around as their schedules need, on the double driveway.  They don't mow the grass so it looks like we live in the ghetto. They leave their trash can sitting out for days although many of them walk past it several times..... and on and on.  I feel anger towards them so many days.
  I have decided lately that God is using my neighbors to show me that I am lacking in my walk with Him.  That I am not loving my neighbor as myself.  It hurts to realize that though I call myself a christian, go to church, read my bible, tithe, pray, go on mission trips and give to those in need, that I am still lacking because I don't love my neighbor as myself.  I have called them lazy and I have thought to myself that the house must be a wreck inside because none of them want to do anything. And that their parents must be so disappointed in them. 
 But God is showing me that I don't know what is in their hearts.  I don't know each of their stories.  I don't know if they have been hurt or lost a loved one.  If they are sick or going through a terminal  illness of a family member.  They may all have to live together in one house because they lost a good job in the bad economy, or have crazy student loans.  I have judged them because of how they have inconvenienced me.  How they have affected my idea of a good neighbor.  But I haven't loved them as myself.  God is asking me to pray for them and in so doing, that I will start to really LOVE them and overlook the things the bother me.  Those things really don't matter in the scheme of things. What matters is that they know a Redeemer named Jesus.  And just maybe my love and prayer for them will draw them to Him.

What is the greatest commandment?  To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, and second, to love your neighbor as yourself.  
I know I will never be perfect, not even close. I will probably be frustrated with my neighbors again, but  I am thankful that God is still working on teaching me every day.