Are You Inventive in Hospitality?

     Several years ago my family came across an absolute treasure of a find - my great grandmother's journals. I never had the pleasure of knowing my great grandmother so it's been a joy to read these journals and have a glimpse into her life.
     One thing that has stood out to me while reading her journals is how different communities were back then. There's not a day that goes by that she was not visiting someone, having someone over, baking a cake for a family, going to a women's club, etc. She gave herself to hospitality. She knew what it meant to gather with others, to love on them, care about them and take the time to listen to them.
     I can't help but think that our society has really lost a lot of that. We've gotten so busy and distracted that we fail to notice the people around us. In a society that's "in touch" more than ever, we are so out of touch with each other.
     You probably know that the Bible says we are to be given to hospitality (Romans 12:13). I really like the way The Message puts it - "Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality." Be inventive in hospitality. Notice it doesn't say be perfect in hospitality. That's a good thing for me because I can get caught up in what hospitality looks like. You know, is my house clean enough? Never. Can I make the perfect meal? Uncontrollable laughter. Will I say all the right things? Nope, I still put my foot in my mouth several times a day. It's not about the perfection, it's just about gathering.
     Being inventive in hospitality means I need to be purposeful about it. I need to mark time on my calendar. I need to offer the invitation. And then, when we do gather, I need to be present. I need to listen. I need to laugh (and possibly cry) with my friends. I need to hug their necks (or give high fives if they're not physical touch people). The point for me is that I just need to do it. I don't believe people are on Facebook (or Fakebook as I like to call it) several times a day because that's their first choice. I think they're on FB so much because they're hungry for relationships, striving to connect, needing interaction.
     How can we be more inventive in hospitality? How can we gather more? Maybe meet a friend for lunch or coffee, invite a family over for dinner once a week (just don't get freaked out about everything being perfect), have friends over for a game night, invite your girlfriends to join you for a ladies night out. Whatever it takes to gather together - just gather! If you ask me, face to face beats Facebook every single time.
     What are some ways that you are inventive in hospitality? Follow my blog for ideas on ways to connect and pre-order Karen Ehman's book  Listen Love Repeat for some great ideas.
     (Pic above is of one of my favorite gatherings - my family reunion held at my dad's church in MI every summer. As you can see, there are a few of us.) 

A Picture of Grace

Amazing grace - do we truly grasp how amazing? I've chosen the topic of grace to dig into and learn more about over the last couple of months. I've learned so much and have been awakened to what God's grace really is about. Now, isn't it just like God to show me a perfect picture of His grace while I'm studying and trying to learn more about it? 

As a family, we use Heritage Builders for family night ideas. During one of our family nights, we talked about some not so good things that had happened that week (fighting with brother, bad attitude, chores not done, etc). Eric and I made a list of these things and we assigned a payment/consequence with each one - no technology, rake the back yard, clean out the garage, etc. We talked about all of this with the boys and let them know what their payment was for each item. You can imagine the reactions from the boys and how fun that part of the family night was for them (NOT). They were so upset as they thought about what their weekend was going to look like. After going through all of their consequences with them, Eric said - "you know what, because I love both of you so much I'm going to take care of every payment on this list." Of course, this was to lead up to talking about how Jesus paid the price for every sin that we have committed or will commit. That's a great picture, right? Something that the boys will remember probably for life, but that's not the part that really stood out to me. Eric went through each item one by one and said - "Jordan, I will clean the garage for you this weekend. Justin, I will take your grounding from technology for the weekend," and on and on down the list. Here's where it gets good - every time Eric said a consequence that he was going to do for the boys, they immediately offered their help. Eric would say - "Jordan, I'll rake the leaves for you," and immediately Jordan said, "I'll help you!" Eric said - "Justin, I'll clean the garage for you," and Justin immediately said, "I'll do it with you!" 

This may not seem like much to you, but this reaction brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't help but think of people who are somewhat fearful to preach/teach about God's grace, because won't people take advantage of it? Won't people keep doing things they shouldn't do because they know it's been taken care of? Here's the deal - knowing how much God has covered for you doesn't make you want to take advantage of that. The boys response to Eric taking their payment for them was to turn around and help, to do what they could for their father. Their reaction was an overflow of the gratefulness in their heart for all that their father was doing for them. This should be the same with us. God has covered our sins and that is GREAT, He's poured out His grace on us and once we truly start to grasp the concept of His grace, our natural reaction is to want to live our lives for Him, to be devoted completely to Him, to do whatever He tells us to do. An understanding of God's grace only deepens our relationship with our Father and creates within us a desire to live in a way that is constantly showing our gratitude to Him.

I smile because God was a part of our family night that night, and He was whispering to me - "Shari, this is what grace looks like. This is what a heart that understands grace looks like." I've said it before and I'll say it again - I just LOVE God winks - those times when you know that God allowed something to happen JUST FOR YOU!" Amazing grace - I pray that as you continue to grow in your relationship with God you will truly understand why His grace is so amazing!

You've Got Mail

Do your kids LOVE getting mail? My boys get so excited when they have mail! Create a family mailbox - this could be one box with the correct amount of slots for each member of the family or individual boxes for each family member. Find a place to put your family mailboxes and USE them! Write letters to your children, your husband and don't forget you'll have a mailbox yourself - those letters from your children will be priceless! You can take the letters and make a scrapbook out of them so you have them to look at again and again! Your kids will LOVE looking at these when they're older and seeing what they wrote! Have fun with this and let your kids decorate their mailbox however they want to!

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Family of the Month

This is a great idea to reach out to your family members and make sure they know how much you love them. Choose a different family member every month (or every week, bi-weekly, however often you want to do it) and write a letter to them, have your kids write a letter or draw a picture for them and print some recent pictures of your family. Mail all of these to the chosen family - just to let them know you love them and are thinking of them. Everyone LOVES getting mail - especially when there's several hand written notes and pictures inside!

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Sending Christmas Cards

What a great tradition sending Christmas cards is! Especially in today's society when everything is either texted or e-mailed. An EASY way to keep Christ in Christmas is to choose a Christmas card that reflects Christ's birth for Christmas. I know there are SO MANY cute cards out there with little furry puppies or little babies wearing Christmas hats, but they don't really say anything about what you believe. Take this opportunity to remind your family and friends about our Savior! Also, let the kids send cards to their friends and family - they will get a kick out of doing this and you can also remind them to pick a card that has to do with the REAL meaning of Christmas - another teaching moment!