Hospitality

Since having so many littles, I have found it more and more difficult to be hospitable, in part because I tend to be a perfectionist. If my house cannot be perfectly clean and if I do not feel on top of my "chores", I do not feel like having company. I have come to realize that, as a mother of many young ones, I am never going to feel like my house is clean enough or that I am on top of all of the projects I would like to complete. Granted, after the year we had last year, things around our home could be better, but this is really no excuse. God calls me to be hospitable.

This can mean different things at different stages of life. It may mean having someone over for snacks and a movie. If things are really bad, it may mean meeting them at the park for a picnic lunch. In our case, our house is particularly small. We don't even have room at our dining table for all of *our* family members--let alone adding extras, so when we have company, we have to be creative. Between the coffee table and the dining table, we can usually squeeze in. We've even been known to have people sitting on chairs with a TV tray next to them or using our little kids outdoor picnic table for small ones :-) The point is, I don't have to offer a Martha Stewart perfect experience. It doesn't even have to be an entire dinner. It *does* need to be filled with love and a desire to make our guests feel welcome.

Recently, we've been working again on being more hospitable. We've enjoyed having a few people over and have kept things simple to avoid the chaos. It will definitely be easier when the weather gets nicer and we can extend our hospitality into the backyard :-) But, for today we are offering what we *do* have and being blessed in the process.