I don’t know about you…but for a long period of time I longed to entertain. A Martha Stewart feast in a Joanna Gaines designed home.
But I don’t know about you, but I don’t cook anything like Martha Stewart, and I can’t decorate like Joanna Gaines, nor can I afford to.
So what can I do if I can’t entertain like that?
I can show hospitality.
There’s a big difference, but to many people it’s a subtle one.
Entertaining is putting on a show. You know…a Pinterest-perfect meal on a Pinterest-perfect table setting in a Pinterest-perfect home with a Pinterest-Perfect family. I don’t know about you…but not a single thing in my life is close to Pinterest-perfect.
Hospitality is inviting people into my home, my life, my family. It might mean they eat a meal, it might mean they come over for coffee, it might even mean they stay the night.
And it might mean that my house is messy, my boys are rowdy, my dogs are unruly, there are dishes in the sink, the meal is ready late, and I haven’t showered that day. Because 9 times out of 10, one or all of these possibilities will be true.
But it’s in opening our homes that we open our lives to people.
Living our real lives in front of our real friends…this is what we should desire to do…not perpetuate the façade of perfection.
It means that I invite our friends over for dinner who have a family member in a wheelchair. Our home isn’t handicapped ready…but my husband and boys can help lift him and his wheelchair up into the house and we can serve the food in an easily accessible area and eat where he can roll to.
It means that I can invite a friend and her family of 5 who are passing through town to stay the night to avoid paying for a hotel, with only 2 hours notice. My kids can sleep on couches so my friends have comfortable beds and privacy for a night. And a quick vacuuming of the main areas of the house is good enough.
It means that though no one else is available or able to help us feed the homeless for our monthly dinner that I don’t have to cancel. I can make sandwiches and serve chips and fruit instead of a hot meal like we always serve.
It means that when a friend is recuperating from surgery, I can take a meal. A simple casserole, a bag of salad and brownies made with love is better than an extravagant feast any day of the week.
Opening my home, my life costs me very little, but makes an extravagant impact in other people’s lives.
How can you open your home and your life to others?
I’d love to hear about it!
Love this and you. I like to invite someone new to almost every gathering I have. I have found that many people who you think are invited everywhere … really never get invited to things. It makes their day and mine.
I tell my kids to be the hospitality you want shown to you.
Sometimes cards and popcorn is all it takes. Nothing fancy about that.! ❤️
Cards and popcorn…that sounds delightful!! ?
You are right. So often we assume people are invited to things, and they aren’t. I’ve always respected how you’ve flung your doors wide open to people. Now if you’d just get rid of that trampoline! ?
You know I cheer a hearty “Amen” to this one. ❤️
I had a feeling! ?? Thank you for stewarding your message well Jen so stubborn people like me can finally Live this out!
Love this ♥️ you’re a fantastic writer Melissa ?
Thank you Kristy! ?