I was recently convicted with a battle between my theological beliefs and my fleshly nature.
As Christian women, we are often called to live out the Lord’s will for hospitality. The idea of having one’s home contain a sweet aroma of joy, warmth, Christian fellowship, and good food and drink is something that we can use to bless our fellow saints, loved ones, and the far-off in our midst. Hospitality can be an example of the Gospel in many ways.
Being willing to share what one has, to sacrifice one’s space, resources, and time allows us to remember that we are not saved by Christ just so we can sit back and enjoy the prospects of our salvation. Christ died so that we may live in relationship with Him, and be reconciled unto God. Christ died to set us free from the bonds of sin and death. Christ died so that we might live to serve, honor, and obey Him. When we open our doors, we must remember this as the foundation of our hospitality: sacrifice, love, grace, communion, and Christ.
I recently saw my sinful nature challenged by my so-called convictions when my husband asked me to do something quite simple for him, and internally, I did not rejoice in the opportunity to help him, but rather grumbled at the “inconvenience” of stopping what I was doing and getting something for him instead.
The Lord quickly convicted my heart and I thought, “It’s amazing (and saddening) how easy it feels to be hospitable to guests, but less so to my own husband.” In this moment, I saw the reality of my sinful nature. As men and women descending from Adam, we have this tension between the “old man”, and the “new man”. When we are redeemed in Christ, we are freed from the bondage of the “old man”, but that doesn’t mean that we suddenly stop struggling with sin. We are fickle creatures, and hypocrites too. We hold on to theological convictions yet fail to live them out in our everyday lives. Thank goodness for the Grace of God, and the Redemption of Christ. It is possible to mortify these sins and actually pursue holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are not stuck in our hypocrisy. We are not stuck in our bitterness. We are not stuck in our vanity. The Lord has given us the way and the means to set us free from these things!
With this hopeful reality, I write this simple reminder to myself, and to the reader, to prioritize being hospitable to our husbands and children first (or those closest to you if you aren't married!), and allowing the overflow of this hospitality to pour into our neighbors.
If we joyfully ask our guests if they’d like water or a snack, why can it feel like a burden when our husband asks for a glass of water or for a sandwich? Simply put, we often don’t think of our husband and children as “guests” at our table. Of course, they aren’t guests in the same way as a friend or stranger, but they are still guests nevertheless. It’s easy to forget that they ARE the special people in our lives. They ARE the one’s who God has given us to serve, cherish and cover in love. Let us seek to treat our husbands and children with the hospitable warmth that we would a guest in our home, and ask the Lord to give us spirits of hospitality. A warm, joyful, and sacrificial wife and mother makes those around her feel like blessings, rather than burdens.