“The heart of hospitality is when people leave your home, they should feel better about themselves, not better about you.” Shauna Niequist 

I’m an introvert through and through. I’m the last person that should be giving hospitality advice. So, I won’t. I won’t give you advice. I will just share what God has allowed to happen in my home and in my heart recently.

Over the last 6 weeks we’ve been blessed to have several families into our home. This picture below was preparation for one of those evenings.

Look at this picture of my non-Pinterest-worthy table setting. Look closely at those chairs. They don’t match. They’re old. Their stained. For a split second I found myself thinking, “What am I thinking? I don’t even have enough chairs at this table for everyone that is coming?!” 

But, thankfully, God intervened.

I think it is no accident that we learn of hospitality in the book of Acts, the earliest of churches.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…Everyday they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Acts 2:42, 46-47. 

They met at the temple, yes, but they also met regularly in each other’s homes. All Scripture is God breathed and useful…the writer of Acts mentions that they met in homes for a reason. And I think that reason is just as vital today as it was in the days of the early church.

But, hold up…wait a minute…I know what you’re thinking. My house isn’t big enough! (Mine, either, actually!) My chairs don’t match! I’m not a good cook! (Me, either! In fact, I hate cooking so much recently that I wrote a post called 20 meals for moms who hate cooking!) I just don’t know about this. I’m just not cut out for this.

I’m with you. I hear you. And here is what I want to tell you…

Take a chance. Do it anyway. Call a family and invite them over for dinner. Just do it. Take a risk. Step out of your comfort zone and bless another family. You don’t even have to cook, actually! Have pizza! Order Chinese! The point is not the food.

I can almost guarantee you will be thankful that you did. Do you know why??

We need each other. 

To be quite honest, we need to see each other’s homes in all their non-Pinterest glory. We need to see the crumbs on the floor. We need to see that there are others out there that don’t dust weekly. We need to know that not everyone has matching dishes, coordinating everything and a family chef who does all the cooking. {pssst… if you have a personal chef, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.} 

Hospitality is not about making your house look good so that others can be impressed. Hospitality is about letting people into your not-perfect home and your not-perfect life so that you can bless and encourage one another.

We need the fellowship, the encouragement, the memories, the conversations around the table more than we need the Pinterest-laden kitchen full of perfect recipes and coordinating dinnerware.

“Hospitality is not about inviting people into our perfect homes, it is all about inviting people into our imperfect hearts.” Ruth Soukup

So, busy moms, what are you waiting for? Don’t try to convince yourself that you’re too busy to invite a friend over for coffee or a family over for dinner. Don’t talk yourself out of a blessing!! Go ahead! Who can you call this week?? I encourage you to go for it! You won’t regret it!

And if, like me, you tend to overthink everything and will try to talk yourself out of this, speak this truth aloud to yourself: My friends want to come over because they want to spend time with me and my family, NOT because I have a perfect home or a perfect table setting. It’s the truth, I promise.