Your Home Is an EmbassySample

When Hospitality Isn’t Your Thing

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it… -Hebrews 13:2

For most of our marriage I have felt like a failure at hospitality. 

My difficulty with, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it,” is my assumption of what this means for me and our family.

“Shoulds” have often ruled my thinking:

• I should want to have people over more often.
• We should have an ‘open door policy’ but I have no idea what that looks like.
• I should be more like so and so who does this so much better than I do.

I recently understand that the details of our life are not out of God’s will but are His gifts to us and are the frame within which we practice our flavor of hospitality.

When our kids were in school, we had sleepovers to welcome other children to our home. We knew some of them might not know Jesus. Some might not know a two-parent family. Some might experience God’s invitation to them while in our home. I realize now that was practicing hospitality in our home, our embassy.

When our kids were teens, we invited a missionary friend for dinner: to welcome him for a home cooked meal on the road, but also to give our children the opportunity to hear miraculous stories of what God was doing around the globe. Hospitality is for your own family too. 

We befriended a neighbor who lived alone; Lee was even a regular guest at our annual Thanksgiving brunch. His joining our family was a taste of God’s welcome of us.

Simple hospitality goes a long way in our modern world.  We are more isolated, more insulated, more afraid, and more cluttered than ever before. Practicing hospitality requires thinking of others.

But your first step should be to surrender to Christ. Ask Him to direct you to what He has for you. Fix your eyes on Jesus, not on others. Accept your limitations and believe that God will guide you to those He wants you to influence for Him.

Start with those who you are around in your regular routine.  The possibilities are many, but the key is listening to God’s leading for YOU.