I had never cared for peanut butter.

Never liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Nope, give me a banana sandwich instead.

One Fall Friday night as elementary school girls will do, I went home with my good friend Camie. We were playing in her bedroom when she goes into the kitchen and comes back with a bag of Hershey Kisses and a jar of Jiffy Peanut Butter and two spoons.

Camie proceeds to screw off the lid of the peanut butter; unwraps a Hershey Kiss and drops it into the jar of peanut butter. She took a spoon and digs the Hershey Kiss out of the peanut butter making sure her spoon is filled with a heaping helping of peanut butter and the Hershey Kiss. She pops it into her mouth. “Yummy” she says, “You want some?” “Hum, I guess,” I say as I follow her lead and I drop a Hershey Kiss into the peanut butter and fish it out with my spoon. It is then and there I fell in love with peanut butter. Oh, my word. The taste was awesome.

Now I still won’t eat a peanut butter sandwich, but I love some peanut butter on sliced apples. When they came out with the crunchy peanut butter, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I can eat it straight out of the jar. But I especially love to take about two tablespoons of it and heat it in the microwave then spread it on sliced banana. Now that is some good snack food. Yummy!

We meet people at times who we may not care for. Their personality or their way of doing things just doesn’t always agree with our way of thinking. But just like my friend Camie introduced me to a new way of thinking about peanut butter sometimes God wants us to grow and give others a chance also. We all have different talents and gifts and we should love and appreciate the differences in each other. Jesus was different from the teachers and the church rulers of his day. All twelve of the disciples each had unique independent personalities.

Are we willing to reach out in brotherly and sisterly love and support to those around us today? Are we will to be a source of encouragement those who are different from us and our group of friends? Are we willing to learn new ways of learning and growing?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’[a] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12; 30,31

May we all be willing to learn to grow in the same love and compassion Christ demonstrated in His ministry.