Learning to Host with a Cheerful Heart

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Today I'm happy to have Sarah from Loved Like The Church here, sharing about hospitality! I'll be able to meet Sarah "in real life" at Blissdom this coming January, which is super exciting. :)

Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 

1 Peter 4:9

My husband, Jonathan, and I have a strong desire to have our home open to our friends, family and even strangers. We love to entertain through hosting BBQs, having guests for dinner or even inviting people to live with us. One of our goals as a family is to be seen as an open door - a place of joy and comfort, a refuge from the world. We want to use our home as a beacon of light, a place to share the Gospel and show Christ's love.

Hospitality comes naturally to Jonathan. He grew up with a large extended family where hosting parties and events was very much part of life. I, too, grew up with a large immediate and extended family. However, we did not live close to our relatives and hosting was not normal. Once we were married, opening up our home wasn't something I was particularly comfortable with because it felt so abnormal. I struggled through several parties and never felt very easy when we had guests. I constantly stressed out leading up to the event, and when guests would "drop by" I very nearly fainted. I felt like everything needed to be planned perfectly and the house spotless. By our third or fourth hosting event, Jonathan asked me why I wasn't having fun. I named a laundry list of reasons, all having to do with the party and not the people. The table wasn't set just right, the food ran late, the drinks didn't taste how I wanted. You name it, I failed at it. Jonathan pointed out that I was acting a lot more like Martha than Mary, focusing more on the stuff than the people.

Slowly I started working through what hosting really means. I started to evaluate what made me enjoy being at other people's homes {was it that the food was on time or was it that the conversation was good?}. I started to realize that opening my home doesn't mean opening up a magazine perfect house, it means opening up my life, it means loving on others. Now while I will still make sure my house is presentable if I know someone is coming over, I stop worrying if everything isn't perfect and focus my attention on the what matters: the people. As my focus has changed, my attitude has changed. I am cheerful when people come over, and look for ways to focus on them, the life of the party, and not the stuff of the party.

From Alicia: Readers, what struggles do you face when it comes to hosting people in your home?

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Sarah is a wife, mother and follower of Christ. She is married web genius and funny man Jonathan, and stays at home with her daughters, Julia {2 yo} and Hannah {16 mo}. When not chasing after her two hyperactive girls, she loves to cook, run, and watch movies in her "spare" time. You can follow her adventures at Loved Like The Church.   






Linked to WFMW and Homemaking Link-Up.

Learning to Host with a Cheerful Heart

My Heart For My Home

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Why do I have a passion for homemaking?

Is it because writing out cleaning schedules makes me tick? Or because I get a thrill out of dotting the i's and crossing the t's on my weekly menu?

Not so much. While I find my daily tasks enjoyable (mostly!) and I like the satisfaction of tackling a to-do list, those are peripheral details. 

What I'm really concerned about are the things at the core of our homes. At the top of my list are:

• The presence of God
• A sweet marriage
• Loving, sane family relationships
• Serving others

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A home brim-full with this life can change the world.

And that's why I am so satisfied in my role as a homemaker...not so that we can live our lives in a perfect state of cleanliness (ha!) with magazine-worthy decor. Or not even so that we can eat balanced nutritious meals for dinner. In my care of my home, I want to facilitate an atmosphere that makes the core things possible. More than possible actually--may they be preeminent!

I'm really excited about the fact that the first three things (God's presence, a loving marriage, and strong inter-family relationships) give power to the last element: serving others. We want our home to act as a launching pad for loving people.

I'm not looking to create a self-contained piece of heaven that closes the world out with four walls. Don't get me wrong here. Our homes should serve as a restful haven from the things of the world. It's into that haven that we want to draw people. I'm not talking so much about entertaining as I am about inviting people into family. A sane, imperfect, messy, drawing-our-life-from-God family.

We're a young family (always on a learning curve), and we have so many lessons in walking all of this out in front of us. But I'm excited to learn!

I wanted to share this with all of you because I realized that I've been blogging for nearly a year (about homemaking!) and I have not clearly shared my heart for my home in so many words. In the future, I hope to have more posts on nurturing the core things, along with more on practically living out hospitality every day (I need some growing here).

I know many of you have this same heart. (Speaking of, if any of you would like to write a guest post on a topic related to these core things, please email me about it at AliciasHomemaking (at) gmail (dot) com.)

Loving fervently is what matters most! May our homes be a tool for just that.

~Alicia
Linked to the Homemaking Link-up and Just For The JOY Of It. :)

My Heart For My Home

The Pancake Breakfast Recap

I'm happy to report that our very first self-hosted pancake breakfast was wildly successful. :)

Here's how it all went down:

Saturday morning, Andrew sweetly dismissed his textbooks and helped me prep in the kitchen. Here he is manning the coffee. What a guy.

                            

Do you see my pancake griddle? It's fabulous. Thank you kind person who bought that for us for our wedding. 

Our first guests were these friends--and they brought with them fresh homemade Chinese dumplings! Incredible. My friend Aiping used to make these, so I am already in love. We put them on the table along with the soy sauce, which made a funny tag-along for pancakes and syrup. :D

Around 10-10:30, the knocks really started greeting our door. I was so excited! I think at one point we had as many as 15 people crammed into our living room and kitchen. 

Much thanks to Amy for her buttermilk banana pancake recipe, which are now my go-to pancakes. Everyone loved them. I went through a quadruple and then a double recipe. 

We had guests from 6 different countries--China, Uganda, Nigeria, Poland, Columbia, and (duh) the US. I love graduate family housing! The map we have hanging in our hall came in handy--I kept pulling different people into the hall so that they could show me the region/city they grew up in or immigrated from. Our neighbor Annet from Uganda spotted our picture of Immaculate (also from Uganda) on the fridge and got so excited.  She showed me on the map where she thought Immaculate must be from, based on her facial features. :)

Overall, it was lots of fun, and we're thinking about making it a monthly get-together. Lots of thanks to Pam (wearing green and sitting on the couch) for helping me pass out fliers and supplying all the OJ. 

                                 

"Mission Meet The Neighbors" continues....

This post is linked to Kat's Motivation Monday. :)

The Pancake Breakfast Recap

Pancake Breakfast: A Saturday Morning Tradition

For as long as I can remember, my godparents have been hosting a pancake breakfast at their house every Saturday morning. Anyone and everyone is invited.

Eat pancakes, drink (really good) coffee, sit on the couches and talk. Kids play on the floor. Someone pulls out the huge chess game.

People come in and out and some stay until late afternoon.

But that's back in our hometown. Our new town is minus a pancake breakfast.

Until tomorrow.

That's right...tomorrow we are hosting our very first, very own Saturday Morning Pancake Breakfast! We've invited the neighbors. I've passed out fliers. It will be Banana Pancakes with homemade pancake syrup, fresh coffee, and orange juice all around.

Maybe everyone will come (eeeek! You know how small my house is). Maybe no one will come. The worst case scenario is that my freezer will be stuffed with a month's worth of pancakes.

Who knows....but I'm excited!



This post is linked to Finer Things Friday and Company Girl Coffee.

Pancake Breakfast: A Saturday Morning Tradition