Hospitality Archives - The Mom Initiative

How to Teach Your Children to Practice Hospitality

The door to the bakery jingled as I opened it. Inside the bakery were many signs that Valentine’s Day was almost here. Heart-shaped balloons and stuffed teddy bears the size of small children greeted the entrance, and iced cookies personalized with “I Love You” lined the glass shelves, tempting me in all their sugar glory. Love was all around, that was for sure. Approaching the cashier, I told her my name and what I had ordered. She came back with four sets of Valentine’s cookies for my kids’ teachers and two large boxes of assorted cookies for our doctors. …

Taking Down the Hindrances to Hospitality

As a newlywed, there were many obstacles that should have in all propriety and dignity (said tongue-in-cheek) kept us from hosting people in our home. We lived in a small apartment. We had little in provisions, financially. We didn’t have fancy napkins or table settings. Maybe it is a personality thing, but I plunged in and invited people anyway. We made lasting memories, not because we had a perfect place or perfect food, but because we had welcoming hearts to friends, new and old. Then something happened about five years into marriage. Someone told me that I needed to have certain …

What is Hospitality?

What is hospitality? It’s not what we know it to be today. The origin of hospitality. To the ancient Greeks and Romans, hospitality was actually one’s sacred duty. They were obliged to obey the Sacred Law of Hospitality, which meant offering bread, water, lodging, and protection to any traveler who came to their door, treating him or her as a guest. The guest was allowed to stay as long as he or she liked. In those days, bread was thinner and crispier than our bread today, which brought about the term “breaking bread.” It signified sharing fellowship at a meal, …

Teach Kids Hospitality

Do you enjoy having friends over for lunch or hosting a neighborhood Bible study? Is your house where family gathers on Thanksgiving? Or, maybe you’re the one who opens her home for the Christmas cookie exchange? If you said yes to any of the above, chances are you have the gift of hospitality. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. 1Peter 4:9 The first nonfiction Christian book I ever read had to do with hospitality. Written by author Karen Burton Mains, Open Heart Open Home is still one of my favorites. I wasn’t raised by a mother who thoroughly enjoyed …

Loving the family table

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The 5 Senses of Hospitality

From Janelle’s heart: Preparing your home for guests is a huge blessing..to you, your guests, and to the Lord. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 What a great reminder of how important it is to open up our homes to others. Hospitality creates an opportunity to love others well all in the name of the Lord-A Lord who has given us a home to entertain in, food …

Can I Offer You My Fish?

“Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9) Hospitality is not my forte. I love to plan parties, decorate cakes and daydream about giving my mantel a trendy makeover—but when it comes to executing these crafty ambitions, my klutzy side takes over. I’ve always considered this a shortcoming. Until recently, when a children’s Bible story shifted my thinking. It was the well-loved tale of Jesus feeding five thousand people with one boy’s lunch. “What’s special about this story?” I asked my five-year-old daughter. “Ummm. …

Listen. What does your home say?

Subscribe today for your FREE copy of… FACING YOUR FEARS – 31 STORIES FROM M.O.M. Every home talks. Above the din or kid tunes, toddler talk, tween laughter, and teenage tunes, homes speak. Despite all of the digital messages firing without pause, “home” still has the potential to resonate strong and true. Whether or not the sound is sweet or foul, our home will speak. What is your home saying? I was invited to a Christmas party at a house that could’ve swallowed 3 of our bungalow. Before I unbuckled my seat belt, …