My wife and I talk a lot about hospitality. We want our home to be a home away from home for those who may not have a home. Specifically, for Christians who are living overseas and just visiting the States while on furlough. Aside from having space to accomodate guests, how else can we be welcoming? It’s something we haven’t thought a lot about. Normally, our conversations start and end with “when we get a bigger house”. But we should be talking and thinking about it more.
That’s why I was so glad to read some hospitality tips from Lydia Brownback. She writes about both attitudes and actions. Many of the actions are most relevant for my wife — after all, there’s only so much I can do while I’m at work 9 hours out of every day. But the attitudes are very relevant to me. And, I can certainly help with the actions and make my wife’s tasks easier.
Lydia offers four principles.
- Hospitality isn’t based on having the “right” house.
- Hospitality isn’t always convenient.
- Hospitality isn’t always comfortable.
- Hospitality is always about serving others.
She also offers four habits.
- Decide to get organized.
- Alter your attitude about your home.
- Get fixed with food.
- Prioritize people.
I think this will give us a great start to becoming a hospitable family. It’s time to break out the planning spreadsheets!
Don’t serve chicken or spaghetti. Ten out of ten missionaries get fed chicken or spaghetti because it is easy, simple, makes large quantities and is perfect when you don’t plan. Be creative with what meal you will serve, and don’t be afraid of having peanut butter and jelly on hand, either. One family I know actually requested it as a dinner item when they were being hosted by a church family because in the last week they had the same meal 5 times, and their young boys just wanted “normal food”. But yeah, want to be hospitable, ask missionaries for tips, they know what hospitality looks like.
We actually asked the last missionary we hosted what he wanted for dinner. We ended up having steaks and cooked some kind of fish (trout? perch? tilapia?) for him. Everyone got exactly what they craved and a good time was had by all.