Hospitality Begins At Home

Use hospitality one to another without grudging.  1 Peter 4:9

Why is it always easier to extend the courtesies of hospitality to those outside our immediate families?  Husbands, relatives, children, or strangely enough their friends often receive short end of our kind attention.  This point was brought forcibly home to my friend and me by her daughter, who cleverly exclaimed before a roomful of guests, "Mommy, why aren't you this nice to us when people aren't here?"

Hospitality, like charity, in order to be true, has to begin at home.  When we are humiliated enough through comments of our children that we have been forced to examine our attitudes toward them.  Did it count, all this gracious open-house business, if we act like a hellion the hour before company arrives?  Wasn't there something hypocritical about receiving laurels for our charity work if our own children's friends are neglected?  Isn't there a glaring inconsistency if we really treat our children differently when outsiders are around?  Through the years I have come to an understanding of the use of hospitality as a gift.  But am I really giving to my own?

A woman can't be perfect in everything, can she?  Yet telltale marks had been imprinted on my own heart by the timely reading of the Scriptures:  If you give even a cup of cold water to a little child...anyone who takes care of a little child is caring for God who sent Me.

Family, What's That?

The very existence and presence of my children make home a pleasure for me.  When I've come home tired, only to open the door and hear their feet running toward me and feel their warm arms encircle my legs, I've thanked God for their life.  They loved me without noticing when my outfit needs accessories, my hair needs attention, or I had a run in my stocking.  They never noticed when my face was badly in need of some fresh make-up; they just loved me the way I was.
The pleasure of belonging to a family is a treasure indeed.  Each person needs a place where he or she belongs.  That is a natural need for every human being.  You and I gravitate to a place that we can call our own, a place where we can hang our hat, where we can live in privacy.  Where I can be me!  We naturally are pulled toward a person or group of persons whom we can trust and where we are accepted as we really are.  This, then, is the joy of belonging to a family:  We can relax in a private place, whether it is a tent or a tower, a condominium, a cottage, or a castle, with people who love us as we are.