My heart warmed when I saw that today’s prompt for Five-Minute Friday was “hospitality.” I’ve written a few posts on the topic in the past, which you can find here.
Being an American in London, I’ve been able to host many a traveler passing through our wonderful capital city. Until some things happened in my family, and we had to pull up the drawbridge for a time. I felt bad when I could tell people were gently inquiring – without asking formally – if they could come and stay, and I didn’t respond with an invitation. And a couple of times I had to flat-out say “no” to the request.
But that was the right answer for that season, and after the tough thing of saying no, I felt relief. After all, exercising boundaries is healthy and good, even if hard. And when I intimated some of the challenges we faced, the people understood.
That season reinforced the notion of loving oneself as well as one’s neighbor, in Jesus’ great commandment. We often focus so much on the latter part of that command that we forget we need to extend hospitality to ourselves too. And, if we have them, to our children – a point that Leslie Verner makes in her lovely book Invited. After all, parents are only really hosting their children for a couple of decades before launching them out into the world.
What’s your approach to hospitality? Have you experienced seasons of openness and seasons of huddling together?
I am taking part in the #fiveminutefriday community. To write your own and link up with the other writers, you can do so here.
A pregnant pause.
