The "gift"

I hear this a lot "You are so blessed to have the gift of hospitality" Ha! Actually, I really do not have a "gift" of hospitality. Just ask my family. Go ahead. They'll tell you. Early on in my marriage I was challenged in this area when I read in the Bible that we are to PRACTICE hospitality. I took that verse literally, shouldn't we all? We lived in an extremely tiny apartment and the kitchen was the size of the bathroom we have now---maybe smaller!
Practice makes progress but you would have thought while my daughter and I were getting ready for company last night that I had regressed back to 1995. I cleaned for a week just to have someone over back then! I look back and think I really did not have to scrub all of those baseboards that were clean already... I didn't clean for a week to prepare for last night. I started at 1pm after taking care of children at a local church for a Bible study. Let me just tell you about yesterday, if it could have gone wrong, it did! At one point I sat down and just started crying. It was late afternoon, none of the recipes were doing what they were supposed to, the kitchen was a wreck, I hadn't been able to vacuum in a week and with 4 animals it was pretty gross. We have hardwoods but you could have mistaken it for "Shag Carpeting" :) My house usually stays clean it's just been a busy couple of weeks for us.
Plus my son's car is broken and I got to pick him up from work. One look at his face and I knew I was getting no help from him. I sent him upstairs right when we walked in the door to shower and relax. He needed to. He works so hard! He inspires me!
I have to say if it weren't for my daughter I would have been sunk! During my mini pity party she came over, put her arm around me and just said it's okay mom. We can do this together.
And we did by God's Grace!
I ended up throwing out the dessert and coming up with my own recipe and doing a lot of things differently.We ended up having time to cut fresh flowers from the yard and decorate. In the end I was relaxed and able to focus on breaking bread with other believers. I loved it. It was so much fun! The food was wonderful and the company too.
So no, don't give me the excuse " I just don't have the gift of hospitality" Let me give you the command to practice it---I promise it gets easier. And remember, try to think out of the box when you think hospitality. It isn't just having people over for dinner. Sometimes budget restraints do not permit that, some of us have space issues. I encourage you to think creatively in this area. Ask your church if you can borrow a room and exchange recipes and fellowship. Ask a friend who is willing to share what God has given her to help you practice hospitality. We have hosted many events for other people and have been so blessed to get to meet new people through doing that! We are Christians. What we have is not our own. It is simply entrusted to us. We are caretakers of God's possessions for a season.
If we are in possession of anything we don't want to share our family holds each other accountable. If it is that important to us then maybe we do not need to be in possession of it...I am so thankful for my children and husband. We balance each other out in those areas.
I would love to know how others practice hospitality. Please leave a comment and let me know.