Although hospitality today seems to be a lost art and not considered to be a true ministry, the Bible still commands us to use hospitality and not to complain about doing it.
Romans 12:13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality…
1 Peter 4:9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
The stresses of everyday living can be very demanding to God’s servants. We must lift up our eyes and see the needs of those hurting around us. We must look for opportunities to provide special times of relaxation for the discouraged and weary.
Many times in this self-centered society, not only unsaved women, but also Christian women, make excuses for not opening their homes and exhibiting hospitality. Today very few people invite you to their homes for a meal or just fellowship. Maybe it is because of the fast paced lifestyle people live. People become so wrapped up in their own lives that they don’t seem to have the time to reach out to others.
What are some of the excuses women use for not practicing hospitality?
My home is not good enough.Through the years, it has not been the women who had gorgeous homes or who prepared lavish meals that made the greatest impact on me. It has been the women who genuinely loved the Lord and offered me simple gestures of friendship and love by offering me simple acts of hospitality. One of my fondest memories goes back many years ago when my husband and I were in Bible College. On weekends, we drove back and forth to Arkansas to minister in a small church. We stayed in the home of a widow woman named Mrs. Medlin. Although she lived on a small pension, she loved God’s servants and wanted to be a blessing to them. Many Sundays, our dinners consisted of only oxtail soup. Even though those were just simple meals, she made them seem like feasts. She willingly shared what she had with us. She did not try to impress us; she just wanted to make us feel special.
It is just too expensive. Hospitality does not have to be costly.
• Invite someone over for just soup and salad or just coffee and dessert.
• Invite several couples for dinner. Ask one lady to bring a dessert, another to bring a vegetable, another to bring a potato casserole, and you provide the meat.
It takes too much time and effort. Hospitality does not have to take a great deal of time and effort. We have time to do exactly what we want to do. We have time to shop, to watch our favorite television programs, to garden, to craft, or even to read good books.
• Stick to meals that are easy. Make things the day before, such as lasagna, and then put it in the oven.
• Forget complicated recipes! When you make a dinner for your family, make a double batch and stick the other one in the freezer.
• Use your crock-pot.
My house is just not clean enough. People are not coming to your home to inspect the dust bunnies under the bed or do the white glove on your furniture.
Here are some simple tricks to practice to always have your home ready to minister.
• Don’t go to bed at night until you have made sure your living room and bathroom are picked up.
• Always put your dirty dishes in the dishwasher instead of the sink.
• If you have children, assign a various job to each child.
• Keep a designated play area, other than the living room, for the children to play.
• Do designated morning chores every morning. (Empty bathroom trash, make beds, put clothes away, and put dishes in dishwasher)
Dear Judy,
I want to thank you for this post as well as others. I found your site because I was looking for ideas to decorate our tables for our Missionary Banquet this year. We have done different things in the past and was looking for a new idea for this year.
I really enjoyed your write up on hospitality. This is my gift. I love having people over from the church and including new people. In our church in CA I use to do a dinner one a month. i would have 2 established couples and 2 new couples always trying not to invite people in the same profession. We would have dinner then clear the table but never leave it and then we’d play a game of Trivia, girls against the guys. I never ran into anyone that wouldn’t play that game. I did the dinner myself because I enjoy doing it and don’t stress out. It was very successful as far as bring people together and making them feel included. After we would have coffee & dessert.
One year our pastor for Mother’s Day decided to take 5 women from the Bible and their gifts and hand them out to the congregation for them to chose someone from the church who fit that gift best and to my surprise our pastor said I had been chosen overwhelmingly for the gift of hospitality. So I guess if I had a question about it before I surely didn’t afterward.
Not this year but next I’m hoping to take your suggestion of contacting the embassies where we have missionaries and see if I can get maps etc. I saw an idea using maps that I would like to do next year.
Thank you again for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with others. I can see that I have a lot of reading to do just on your site.
Sincerely,
Kitty