of the easiest ways to help someone in need or even just someone who just
needs a bit of extra help is to take a meal. I usually take a main dish in a throw-away
container so they do not have to worry about getting the container back to me. I put
a salad in a large plastic bag or give a jar of applesauce, a loaf of bread or rolls, and a
dessert of some sort. If there are children, I’ll send cookies, but I usually do my cobbler.
I am sure you have great ideas, too. Sometimes I do three meals at once and deliver
them in the same day. It is easier than doing them a week apart.
One of the best things I’ve done is to train my children to be hospitable, caring,
empathetic people. In our last neighborhood, my kids and I would take a loaf of
banana or pumpkin bread to everyone when they moved in. I am sure there were
some we missed, but we tried. We also made cookie plates for households on our
street at Christmas time. I think it is part of our responsibility to show our children
ways they can reach out and show hospitality too. A friend’s family has made candy
cane bread braids every Christmas for over thirty years. It is a huge undertaking. The
recipe is found later in this book. Not only is this a fun thing to do, but people now
look forward to receiving them each year.
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Sometimes, the most helpful thing is to go visit with someone.
Just to sit and listen to their stories or share life with them.
People enjoy having someone come by to see them, or maybe
do a small chore for them. They may not feel like they can ask
you to help, but if you notice while you are visiting, then you can
casually help them out. If you notice something bigger that needs
doing, you can plan to come back to take care of what is needed.
Start today—right now, even. Create a family tradition to make
something for someone or do a random act of kindness for
someone you know who needs to know they matter to someone
and that God hasn’t “forgotten” them. God’s gifts are meant to
be shared whether you have a large home or a small one and
whether you feel outgoing or not. Everyone lives in different
places and has different circumstances in their lives. You know
people I will never meet: hurting people who can be reached by
God only through your willingness to minister (to serve) God’s
love to them. Your way of showing hospitality will be different
than mine. Hospitality shows others how much you care about
them. It shows them that you want to give them your time to
prepare a place for them to feel at home—a place where they
can be themselves. It doesn’t matter if things are perfect, just
that they feel welcome and cared for. I would encourage you to
expand your ideas and look at hospitality in a new, fresh way.
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CHAPTER 2
My Story
“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding
it is established; and by knowledge the rooms
are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”
—Proverbs 24:3–4
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My early years were spent growing up on a horse
ranch in Western Washington. My momma—we
called her “Moma”—used to joke our home was
just a converted chicken coop. Whether that was
factually true or not, I can’t say, but I do know Moma
always said so. She had always been a city girl before
marrying my dad, and it’s likely our somewhat
primitive homestead was not her favorite. It was long,
with no windows on the north side, and the rustic
agrarian look was not her idea of how a house should
look. Moma embraced it enough to live in and rear
her children in it, but she would not allow us to have friends over. If friends did
invite themselves over, she made them sit on a hard rock seat connected to the
fireplace, thus giving them an incentive not to make an evening of it.
Later, in the last thirty years of her life, God transformed Moma, and she had
people visit quite often; they would sit in front of her rocker and share their
burdens, and she would pray and minister to them. Moma’s heart of hospitality
applied to family, too. Our grandparents lived next door to us on the farm. After
my Grandma died, Moma would have Grandpa come to dinner at our house, and
Moma was always faithful in her care of him.
Holidays can be very lonely times for shut-ins or those “parked” in nursing homes
by their families who are “too busy
