Haven or Hollywood?

Is your home more like a heavenly haven or Hollywood? Does your vision for your home include being a place of rest & caring for people, or merely entertaining them with dazzling decorative & culinary skills?

Entertaining says "Hi! I'm glad you came! Look at the tasty food I've prepared for you. Look at the way I can decorate. Look at my house. Look at how beautiful my life is. Come in, and compliment me on all of these things."

image: shutterstock

Hospitality says "Come on in. Put your feet up. Would you like a cup of tea? How have you been? Can I pray for you? Let me be an encouragement however I can. Your heart is precious to the Lord, and it delights me to help you remember that!"

I'm a people-pleaser. And I am an approval-seeker. For so long, I wanted to entertain people. To give them something to oooh and aaaah about when they came to my home. And, early on in our marriage, I sometimes did not invite people in if the house was not clean...I wasn't as concerned with hearts as I was with what they thought of my home. What a shame!

Does it mean that fancy dinner parties and planned get-togethers are wrong? No! Does it mean that we should sit around chatting and sipping tea with other ladies all day, every day? ...no! It means that you & I need to earnestly seek the Lord & His word daily and have a heart and a schedule that are flexible and willing to minister with an others-focus when He asks. And, as I'm learning right now, that my first priority is to be hospitable to my own family. To make sure that I am speaking (with words & actions) to my husband "Come on in! Put your feet up! Tell me about your day...." rather than, "Hi! Glad you're home! Did you see all the hard work I did today? Look at how hard I'm working to clean well." To make sure that my children feel that home is a haven, and that I delight in reminding them often that their hearts and needs and struggles are precious to the Lord.

It means that whether we're inviting people in to our houses or out to breakfast, visiting family or vacationing abroad, chatting on the phone or chipping in to help in our community, you & I need to be in constant communion with the Father, asking Him to reveal how to have a love for each person He puts in our paths.

If believers stopped entertaining and started administering true, biblical, radical hospitality in their homes, workplaces, and communities - oh! Think of the hearts and lives that could be healed and the hope that would be kindled, because of the love of Jesus having priority over making ourselves look good!

Here are some of the resources that radically altered my idea of what "Christian hospitality" should look like:

Strategic Hospitality - sermon by John Piper
Open Heart, Open Home by Karen Mains
My Heart's at Home by Jill Savage
"Ever Met an Angel?" - article by John MacArthur

God is teaching me how to make sure my heart & home are a haven for His love. What has He been showing you in this area?

Embracing hospitality,
for His glory!
~Lisha

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