by Kimberly | Oct 26, 2017 | 31days, lavish hospitality
Would you like to hear a heart desire of mine? Really?
I’ve wanted a place (a home, which we have) to have a meal with people each week. Preferably the same people because I love deep community, but a place to sit down over food and good conversation, good drink and lovely people – a place for people to be real, for kids to play in the yard, for time to slowly pass because you are enjoying the company so much.
A place to share happiness and hurts, celebrations and pain. A place where you can come dressed up or in cut-offs and flipflops. And for this to be longterm.
I didn’t have this growing up – even though we lived in the same house and went to the same church most of my growing up years. We sorta had it with the small church I grew up in with 5th Sunday dinners, but that was at a church and only happened a few times a year. Though there was some seriously good food.
But, I want it around our table. And if I had my way, I would pick about 10 couples to all move to my neighborhood and do this with me every week.
Quote from Sally Clarkson’s The Life Giving Table. Originally in Orthodoxy
by Kimberly | Oct 26, 2017 | 31days, lavish hospitality
Think of hospitality for just a moment – what comes to your mind?
Southern Living?
Wrap around porches with rocking chairs?
Coffee mugs?
A bundt cake or chocolate chip cookies?
Sweet Tea?
Pottery Barn guest bedrooms?
A cozy bed and breakfast?
All of these things are great – and can be used in hospitality – but none of them define hospitality.
All month I’ve thought about how to define hospitality and I’m still working on it, but here is a working definition:
Hospitality seeks to welcome others with lavish grace without a hint of self-interest.
Wow – yup, this is super tough. And none of us will ever be the perfect hospitable hosts. Never – because we are prideful people. But, thankfully, One was completely hospitable and makes a way for us to pursue Him.
We can practice hospitality through the lens of the Gospel, praying that God would use us to welcome others, to be a rest for others, to encourage others.
Quote from C. J. Mahaney Humility
by Kimberly | Oct 24, 2017 | 31days, lavish hospitality
Hospitality isn’t all about how your house looks or how much nice stuff you have lining your walls or what style sofa or table you have. Now, don’t get me wrong – I love all the stuff. I really enjoy making my home look good – put together.
I want this table so bad, but it is not in our budget.
This loveseat for our library/den would be amazing – not in our budget right now.
I would love this oversized chair for our master and a new tv for our living room (so we could mount our smaller tv in our master) – but not in our budget.
I would love finish off the kitchen in our new house to my exact liking – but its not in our budget right now.
I’ve been reading Little House on the Prairie books to my older before bed. We are a little bit into Farmer Boy. I’m coming to realize how different Laura and Almonzo were raised. They weren’t in the same economic sphere.
But, that didn’t seem to matter. And now it shouldn’t matter either.
Hospitality can be a can of beans and rice. It can be homemade bread or chips and guacamole. It can be a glass of water or a cup of coffee.
Hospitality is meant to be welcoming and gracious – not necessarily expensive.
Quote taken from Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House in the Ozarks
by Kimberly | Oct 23, 2017 | 31days, lavish hospitality
I am a better multitasker than my husband. He will definitely admit this. Usually I think this is a positive trait – and it certainly comes in handy since we have littles. But, I don’t know if it is always the best way to be hospitable.
When we have guests in our home I am often running around finishing a meal, setting the table, making sure my children are behaving, etc.
Here’s what I long to be: I long to be so well organized and hospitable that I can stop doing whatever it is I’m doing and pay attention. Like deep attention. Not creepy stalker attention, but God-like attention.
I want to pay attention to my husband.
I want to pay attention to my children.
I want to pay attention to my friends.
In our technology-infused world this is hard. I can be listening to my husband, reading a text, and cooking dinner all at the same time. And truthfully, I head what he is saying and can repeat it back to him. But, that isn’t hospitable attention.
How can we savor our relationships so that we delight in giving them our full attention?
Quote from Mike Cosper’s Recapturing the Wonder
by Kimberly | Oct 23, 2017 | 31days, Books, lavish hospitality
Friendship is such an avenue for hospitality.
And you know it well:
Think of the friend that you can just pop in and see and it doesn’t matter what their house looks like or what they are wearing. I read in a study recently that teenagers have more of a self-image problem because of selfies – you could just hang out and not care what you look like, but now everyone is doing instastories and selfies all the time – you have to always care what you look like.
Think of the friend that you text or call first when something hurts you. Or when there is something to rejoice over!
Think of the friends that you text or call when there is a crisis and you need prayer. I know I have a short text list of ladies I know who will pray for me as soon as I text them.
Think of the friend that you want to share your struggles with – whether they are struggles in your marriage, in parenting, or in your business.
Friendships like these don’t come along all the time. And they also don’t come by way of social media.
These types of friendships take countless hours interacting, journeying life together, sitting in coffee shops, skyping or talking on the phone, or pulling up a barstool to the kitchen counter.
Quote from Maggie Brendan’s new book Trusting Grace
by Kimberly | Oct 21, 2017 | 31days, lavish hospitality, mothering
What is the goal of motherhood?
You know what – I don’t know. I don’t have all the answers.
Basically – here is what I think the goal of motherhood it is.
With God’s grace, shepherd your children to see their need of Him. If along the way you teach them how to do well in school, be model citizens, grow up to be a great wife or husband, be honorable, then they are good side effects.
But, the goal of motherhood is to point them to their Creator. And point them is all we can do. That has been the hardest thing for me to come to grips with – I can’t save my kids. Only God can save my kids.
And, if we attempt to put on a mask of motherhood perfection – we are not being hospitable. Not to ourselves, our kids, our husbands, or our friends. We will only let ourselves down.
Quote from Beyond Bath Time by Erin Davis
