One of the things I constantly suggest families do regularly is to entertain people in their homes. There are so many benefits to your family when you host others. I was obviously interested then when offered an opportunity to review a new book on the subject, The Simplest Way to Change the World by Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements.
Willis and Clements make the case that through bringing others into your home you can more easily accomplish two of the main goals of Christians – serving others and sharing your faith. In fact, one of my favorite concepts in the book is that hospitality is not a nice, optional activity for Christians – if they have a large house, nice furniture, extra money for great food and plenty of free time. Instead, they maintain hospitality is actually commanded of Christians.
Indeed, Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” and I Peter 4:9 “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” are only two of several verses in the New Testament commanding Christians to practice hospitality.
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If a book of the Bible could stalk you, Galatians has been following me around lately. Everywhere I go, it seems they are studying Galatians and particularly what Paul has to say about freedom. The more I thought about it, the more I realized the concept of freedom taught in Galatians is a vital lesson for our kids to learn and understand.
Have you ever sat down with a group of moms? On a good day, it can be a lot of fun laughing and celebrating all things parenting. On many days, however, the conversation spirals into complaints and even whining. Now as a card carrying optimist, I’m not usually given to negative thinking for very long, but even I have days when it seems life has drained the joy out of my world.
God’s love for us is at the very root of Christianity. I’m sure you are teaching your kids to love others. Love is complicated though. It’s not just butterflies in your stomach or finding a friend who enjoys the same things you do. True agape love is loving people even when you have nothing in common with them. It’s the ability to love people even if you don’t particularly like them at the moment. It’s even what makes it possible to love our enemies.
The university I attended for my undergraduate degree was actually a part of Colonial Williamsburg. We were seeped in history and most of us loved it, no matter our major. Our library was full of rare documents from people like Thomas Jefferson and other historical figures. As a result, one of the principles we were taught was the idea of researching primary source documents.