Last night I was reading in Practicing Hospitality about being trustworthy enough to offer hospitality. These questions really made me think:
*Am I eager to open my home to unplanned guests for an extend visit - even at inconvenient times?
*Am I projecting to others that my home is available as a place of refuge?
*Am I willing to maintain a confidence when shocking news is shared with me?
*Am I open to crossing intergenerational lines to extend biblical hospitality?
*Am I patient to wait for my guest to open the contents of her heart?
*Am I more concerned about what my guest wants to discuss than what I want to communicate?
*Am I a clean vessel that the Holy Spirit can use to affirm the Lord's work in the lives of others?
Other questions in the chapter that spoke to me were
*Am I willing to receive unwarranted criticism?
*Am I willing to experience weariness or emotional fatigue from offering hospitality?
*Am I willing to wear the physical and emotional bruises that are associated with opening my heart to others?
What the Lord showed me through this chapter is that He is not just talking about having people into my home, but into my heart. I have to admit that I had to answer "no" to several of these questions. I am not willing and sometimes not able to open my heart and home to others. I want God to grow me in this area. I want to be available and willing.
2 comments:
It's sad but true...
Hospitality is a lost art.
In the bible when the disciples went from town to town they relied on the hospitality of others to meets their physical needs.
I grew up having people over for lunch every Sunday after church and I really miss that.
Why haven't we adopted this mentality?
Well, for starters, my house isn't always clean enough for company, then there'e my husband who doesn't really care for that idea, then there's the whole what- should- I -plan- to- eat- thing.
We're so lame.....
I want to be better about that, too.
Speaking of receiving unwarranted criticism... Today at Costco a lady made a remark about my buying Organic milk. Making small talk, I said I didn't know if it really made a difference or not, to which she replied, "So there's no pesticides which means there's bugs and poop in it". How do you respond to that??? Ha!
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