Hospitality

Easter Sunday is just two days away. I love this time of year when we have the opportunity to focus on and celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!

My daughter, Danielle, made this appetizer for Thanksgiving a few years ago, and it has become a holiday family favorite ever since! It’s a perfect snack to enjoy while waiting on the big Thanksgiving meal.

One of my first official attempts at gracious hospitality came early in our family’s ministry, and it was not what I imagined it would be. My husband had just started a couples’ class, and he was so excited the Sunday our first visiting couple attended church. Imagine my shock when, right in the middle of class, he invited them over to our home for lunch!

I can’t really get to know someone passing them in the hallway at church. In order to really get to know them, I must give of myself. Sometimes we do not want to get close to others because we have been hurt in the past or are afraid of being hurt.

Another great purpose in having hospitality is to bond your new converts or people who are new to your church with other Christians. Help them to make friends. We try to have new people over at the same time we have “old” members over.

Let’s do an acrostic with the word purpose. We are all busy, right? Our hospitality should be profitable and have a purpose. So P stands for:

Just the word hospitality sounds warm, fuzzy and inviting! Hospitality says, “Welcome!” If you’re like me, you have good intentions! You want to do right; you want to be a blessing, and you want to encourage others. Well, good intentions get us nowhere. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.