I'm writing 5 minutes on the topic hospitality.
GO
There is a difference between hospitality and entertaining. Entertaining is having people over to impressing them with food and decor; but hospitality is sharing your life with your friends.
You could entertain by serving a beautiful scrumptious meal but withhold yourself from being fully present with your guests.
I picture hospitality more as an invitation to pull up a chair and engage in conversation with me. I want to hear all about how God is working in your life, and I want to share what He has done in mine.
I'm not good at having people over to my home.
It's sad I'm not; because I'm the offspring of a lady who was epic at hospitality. My granny was always and forever cooking little dinners and having friends to her house. People stopped by for coffee and conversation often as well. She also loved to have people come and sit for hours at her table and play Scrabble and talk.
Her house was not fancy nor her food expensive; but she didn't let that stop her. She offered love and a listening ear, and people ate it up!
(Stop)
I find it funny that I've written this week on hospitality on the blog and legacy on Instagram. I realize my granny's legacy was hospitality. I know that is true, because on Facebook - just this week - one of my cousins mentioned Granny's cooking and opened up a floodgate of comments from people remembering her hospitality.
Even though I'm working on having people over to my house - I live in the sticks, and I don't ever see my people traveling to come to my house like Granny's friends did - I still can be hospitable and engage in sharing in other people's lives whether it is at a coffee-shop or a church fellowship.
What about you? Do you consider yourself hospitable?
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What a wonderful legacy to have: hospitality! Your Granny sounds like a lovely person who opened her home and heart to others. Such a great example for us! I love the careful distinction you made between hospitality and entertaining. So very true! I hope you'll continue to challenge yourself to be more comfortable and create opportunities for hospitality. (Your neighbor at FMF.)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed what you said about the difference between entertaining and hospitality. One being more surface, and one being an invitation to your life. My mom is epic at hospitality, and I wrote about her this week for FMF. It's a blessing to have that role model, you with your Granny and me with my mom. I want to be more like her! Thanks for sharing this week, and for what you wrote. Have a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteVisiting from FMF - and I enjoyed your post. But I did laugh out loud when you said you live in the sticks!! That's funny. In this concrete, traffic-clogged world I live in...I can't really picture the sticks but I wouldn't mind an invitation to visit a friend there!!
ReplyDeleteI'm learning to be less stressed about entertaining. One thing I've learned, guests take their cue from the host. If she's stressed, not a good vibe for the party. My sister throws parties at the drop of a hat. I wish I'd got some of those genetics.
ReplyDeleteYES! One of the strong points that came up for me on one of those "what's your area of gifting in the church?" was hospitality. My mom did NOT like entertaining or being hospitable but when she DID have friends over or extended family, the house was always spotless and she would cook a simple meal. For me? i just cook what i would for my family or sometimes we order out. But we ALWAYS just open up our home as is. In fact, I was cringing when my company came over last Tuesday ( a work night!!) because our living room (more formal in a way than our family room) was FULL of Claire's UNH Dorm stuff. (She leaves Thursday). my friend did NOT care!! I cooked asimple dinner and we sat around inthe dining room talking about her missions trip. I love the area of hospitality and hope to do more once sumemr is over and i'm in this new school year.
ReplyDeleteI'm having 19 students over for cookies and milk tonight :). I like to do the cooking, and let my husband do the entertaining, though. Some days I feel more talkative, but I prefer to listen.
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ReplyDeleteGreat article . Extremely helpful .