Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Hospitality (02/07/05)
-
TITLE: Open Heart, Open Home | Previous Challenge Entry
By Carol Buist
02/12/05 -
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
ADD TO MY FAVORITES
Although I won’t touch on all that could be implicated by the term “hospitality,” I will expound on one facet of it – opening one’s home to another. In a way, opening your home is like opening your life to someone else and exposing what you are really like. A person can tell a lot about someone by the habitation that person calls “home” – whether that individual has organization and structure in their life, what their hobbies and interests might be and what things are important to them. A person’s values and tastes are reflected in their home surroundings. It is easier to “let one’s hair down” when one is in the familiar surroundings of his or her own home, and it is harder there to put on the pretense and the “public face” we often show the world.
Having been both the recipient and giver of hospitality, I can truly say that both parties are often blessed. When I was a teenager, my parents did not attend church with me, and one of the church families often invited me into their home for Sunday dinner. How fond those memories are of sitting at their table, eating fried chicken, and gathering with them afterwards to listen to them play bluegrass music! I can recall two special couples in my life who have often invited my husband and I into their homes for holiday dinners, since we have no extended family of our own nearby. We are made to feel like part of their own family, and we are drawn closer to them in the bonds of friendship as we see how they interact with their kids and grandkids and as we hear their family stories and take part in their family traditions. I also recollect my own feelings as a hostess when my husband and I invited a young Bible college student to spend the weekends at our home, since he was serving as our church’s part-time youth minister, but was from out of town and needed a place to stay. What began as a sense of duty quickly turned into a blessing, and I looked forward to his coming each week, since I enjoyed his presence with us.
Yes, it takes time and a certain amount of vulnerability to open our homes. It is truly an act of service: notice the listing of hospitality between such other duties as “bringing up children” and “washing the feet of the saints” in 1 Timothy 5:10. By opening our home to another, we are letting that person know that they are important to us – important enough that we will give them of our time, service and even ourselves. Hospitality…. it’s about time.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
If you died today, are you absolutely certain that you would go to heaven? You can be right now. CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.
