Hospitality

Hospitality

Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.

WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I were first engaged, our extended families decided to host Thanksgiving together. It made sense since we all lived in the same community, and it made the holiday so much easier for my husband and I without having to rush from one gathering to the next. It became a tradition that has continued on every year since.

But what started as just our two families coming together has evolved into something so much more inviting. Since this started a new tradition for our families, it opened the door to inviting others in as well. Now, anytime someone doesn’t have a place to go on Thanksgiving, they’re invited to our little gathering. We’ve welcomed single people, college students away from their families, neighbors, and anyone else who needed a place to go. Keeping our circles open on Thanksgiving has made it one of my very favorite holidays.

Hospitality is defined not only as inviting in friends, but also strangers. When I think of how we truly started to be more hospitable to those around us, it began on Thanksgiving. You never knew who you could be sitting next to, it might have been someone who was a complete stranger to you, and yet, this opening of our family’s door on Thanksgiving opened up the possibility of doing it more often on the ordinary days of our lives.

We are told often in Scripture to be hospitable. To be willing to open our homes and our lives to those around us. For some of us, this is easy, since we grew up in homes that shared their tables with others regularly. But for some of us (myself included), this is a new way to live. And it can be scary. But hospitality doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. It simply means offering a space for others to gather, to get to know one another and build relationships.

Lord, give each one of us a heart’s desire to be hospitable toward those we come in contact with, inviting them into our spaces cheerfully and sharing your love with them. Amen.

-Kendra

One Good Step: Invite someone to have a meal or a cup of coffee with you.