Wednesday, October 14, 2009

A People Person

I want to thank you all for your encouragement! We are still praying about this decision; if you think of me on Thursday, please pray! I will be in a meeting that day about the temporary position.

DD#2 just walked by the computer and said, " That's a pretty picture!" I was happy to tell her that it is one she took of our fall arrangements. She's tickled to be a published photographer. Her creative soul was blessed to " fallify" our house for our guests Friday night. The last of the cosmos, the first of the leaves. Together they made beautiful harmony.

So did our friends. One of the wonderful, humbling privileges of being part of our praise team is the opportunity to work and worship with some folks that have been blessed with great talent. That ability was put to dubious use playing Encore. Have you played that game? It is tons of fun if your guests aren't shy! Teams battle to see who can remember the most songs that belong in particular categories (i.e. songs about cars) or have a certain word in them (like yes or school). Since we had everything from pre-teens to aging hippies among us, the selections ranged from "My Darling Clementine" to the national anthem of Columbia (one guest grew up in Bogata)!

We have several bags of leftover chicken taco meat in the freezer.

All that fun, food, and fellowship got me thinking about the hurdles our modern lives place in the path to hospitality. Relationships take work, but the rewards far outweigh the effort. The people who came to our home are vital to our spiritual well-being. They lead us in worship, encourage us, challenge us. It shouldn't take me months to get around to thanking them.

How about you? Does hospitality come easily to you these days, or are you struggling to fit that in among your other obligations?

I want to get better at making pockets of time for relationship-building. I want connections--both in cyberspace and face-to-face--that reflect the heart of Christ toward others, because the bottom line is this: people matter.

They matter so much to Christ that He gave His life for them.
They matter so much that He lives to intercede for them.

The least I can do is make them a chicken taco.

Or write them a note.

Or remember their name, for goodness sake-- something that is increasingly difficult with the onset of peri-menapause.

Because you matter.

Blessings,
Ginger

3 comments:

  1. Challenging post, Ginger. I LOVE having people over for a meal or dessert. But that is where my gifting for hospitality stops. I do NOT like having overnight guests...it is a major source of stress for me. I suppose I need to work on changing that but I'd just rather pay for a hotel room than have overnight guests. Isn't that horrible? It took me years to get to where I would even admit it.

    Leah

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Ginger,
    Thanks for popping over to my blog and leaving me a note. It was great meeting you at CVS the other day.... So blessed to see that someone recognized my face from my blog.

    The wedding was absolutely perfect! I loved every minute of it.. My daughter was a beautiful bride.

    Loved reading this post about hospitality. It is a lost art in this day and age, unfortunately. I love having people over, but to tell the truth I've not followed through with that love as often as I would have liked to.... I allow things to hinder me....

    Thanks again!
    Julie

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love opening my home to people, but lately I've been really guarding home-time because it seems like we are seldom able to just relax as a family. In fact, my man has signed us up for leading a small group in our home from church, and I've actually been dragging my feet for those very reasons. I want to be a servant, but hospitality has been tough lately!

    I suppose I need to revisit this again soon. I wrote it at the top of a prayer journal sheet about a month ago... Funny how that works eh? Thanks for the reminders...

    Blessings,
    Sasha

    ReplyDelete