Hospitality

Hospitality is not one of my strongest points. Truthfully, I'm doing good to get enough food thrown together for each meal to feed my family without any extras. What I make my family thoroughly enjoys, but I don't exactly enjoy cooking. To me cooking is a matter of survival. We "eat to live; not live to eat". I always enjoyed that quote because it described my feelings toward food so concisely.

We unexpectedly had a missionary at our church on Sunday. Their transmission quit on them outside of Billings while they were on their way to the West Coast for a missions conference. So Monday morning Josh and I decided to ask them to dinner if they were still stuck here that evening. In the past this would have been a huge deal. I would have been crisis cleaning feverishly all day long. But since finding Flylady my house is released of clutter, and C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) no longer rules and reigns in my home. When my mom stopped by my house, I asked her if she would watch the kids for me while I ran to the store. I was back in half an hour, and I cooked the meal right away. After that I mopped my kitchen and wiped down the surfaces. I shined up the already cleaned bathrooms, Jordan vacuumed, Alia helped me dust, I shined up my windows, then I made rice crispie treats (my Grannie's yummy recipe) for dessert. The only glitch in my day happened here when I almost burned the chocolate to a crisp while melting it. :D I sent the kids to clean up their rooms, and was able to take my time getting myself ready. It was a piece of cake. Isaac woke up just in time for me to get him dressed and fed before Josh left to go pick them up.

The whole time I had this uncanny feeling that things were going too smoothly, but the whole evening went very well. It was just so foreign to me to be relaxed enough to enjoy having people over without being exhausted from cleaning or having to feel guilty about the state of my home. I praise the Lord for the way he answers prayers that seem insignificant so fully. He wants me to have the freedom to enjoy being hospitable. He even reprimanded Martha for being so preoccupied with much care and serving. It doesn't honor God when we don't have things together enough to open our doors to strangers when he leads us to do so. Even at the last minute, which I'm coming to find out is usually the case. I'm far from perfect in this area, but one baby step at a time, I'm making progress and growing.