In a world where excuses are so simple to make, I am attempting to avoid them all together. In my diet, exercise, academics, relationships and most of all spiritual life.
An attempt to eliminate excuses manifested itself last night in the way of hospitality. In our life right now, we had every excuse in the book to avoid opening our home, but we stepped out of our comfort zone and did anyway. The results were so refreshing.
We opened our little one bedroom to ~15 guests last night for a night to celebrate Halloween and carve some pumpkins! In my usual fashion, it was an under-photographed event unfortunately (something I would also like to work on). The menu I set out was:
With sour gummi worms, candy corn, and hot apple cider :)
Everyone brought all sorts of other treats and ended up being one big sugar high.
Despite all of our poor dietary choices, the night was exactly what I needed to re-charge my batteries and get out of my whiny I'm-so-ready-to-graduate rutt. Not only was it a good night, but it was very clear the Lord was teaching me through it.
We went to Chipotle for dinner as Pumpkin & Pi for some boo-ritos :)
I love entertaining. I dream of having a beautiful home someday because I dream of opening it to others, welcoming them in, and showing the Love Christ has afforded our family through the love and joy we impart.
I dream of my home someday being a comfortable place, not a perfect place, but a safe place. A place where people can come and know no fronts or Kevlar necessary.
I felt convicted that "someday" is now. We could sit around our whole lives planning for "someday." Right now we have been so blessed with a wonderful location and sweet home. Small and busy are two terrible excuses not to take the plunge of entertaining that I feel the Lord has put in my heart. Life will always be busy and while the size of our home might not always be my insecurity, there will always be some insecurity the enemy will sneak into my head.
While this sounds slightly dramatic and pretty insignificant, it was a big step for me. My husband was not on my page at first. He graciously agreed to move forward with my proposed plans however, and in the end, we were both glad things happened as they did.
Anyway, the moral of the story is that 1) excuses are exactly that, excuses and 2) hospitality is like anything else, it requires practice and the longer you go without doing it, the easier it will be to believe those excuses.
I read this blog post a sweet friend posted on Facebook yesterday and wanted to share it also, with Thanksgiving quickly approaching, it reminded me of the blessings in my life and to thank the Lord for them every. single. day. because things can change so quickly. I am so challenged to "consider it all joy," even the situations that seem less than ideal. Please keep that sweet family in your prayers, they have stood strong in such adversity.
Happy Friday!
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