Sunday, March 1, 2009

A Hospitable Moment

"Hospitality: the cordial and generous reception of guests. "

In the Dictionary this word is followed by "Hospitalization: The act of putting a person in a hospital as a patient." It's really funny the way words work sometimes, those words were just placed together because of alphabetical order, but for some of us it seems as if it might be telling us more. A warning perhaps.

My goal is to avoid putting them together myself.

I enjoy having people to my home, really I do. I also stress out for a week or so before, clean like a mad woman and dream possible entertaining scenarios in my head (good and bad), clean some more, obsess over what to serve to my guests and most likely involve my mother and most recently my Aunt.

OK, the cleaning is going to happen no matter what. I have three busy, creative, imaginative, fast little gals at home, all the time, and one husband. They can all be a trifle messy and it really adds up fast. Rooms can be clean one minute and faster than I would have ever thought humanly possible there is a mess a again. (I tell myself its a cleaner mess, please don't argue with me here, it's all I've got.) I will say that although they make bigger messes the older they get they can also kind of clean them up too, if it is brought to their attention.

The food can also be fun if you like to think of your guests as guinea pigs, however that is rarely a good idea if you like the people coming over, and want to see them again. I do, so I try to serve something I know well and have practiced before or am familiar with. Again trying not to bring hospitality and hospitalization together. My Uncle, whenever he is in town, makes these really wonderful green chili enchiladas that are dreamt about while he is away. This is what I attempted to make this weekend , or rather a version of them, for my guests, and after a call to my afore mentioned aunt while in the midst of frying the tortillas, they turned out well. Not as good and Uncle Greg and Aunt Cheryl's but they were a tasty representation of the real thing.

All this comes to the blog because we have had Love One Another month at our church. It was a month to focus on getting to know the unfamilar faces around us and to find ways of showing love to all those around us. To finish the month we had a satellite supper where host families invite those in the church they don't know well into their homes in an effort to get to know each other over dinner; after which we all meet at the church for pie and to further mix and meet.
This was a GREAT idea and TONS of fun, we spent time with folks we normally just say "Hi" to on our way to the cookie table and the people we know well. I went out on a limb and signed up to host. It was a lot of work for an initially shy person like myself (My family members are laughing at me now saying Alisha shy?? Keep in mind I have ALWAYS known you.) and it was good to stretch out of my comfort zone. My family feels a sense of accomplishment and there are now new friends and good memories with older ones. I was taught as a child to be a servant of others, to put their needs ahead of my own, and only sometimes succeed in that, but being a servant to all is the key to loving one another isn't it? That is the essence of Hospitality.

"Dear friends let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whosoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." I John 4:7-10

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