I’m guest posting over on Courtney DeFeo’s blog about Easter and forgiveness, and how we help our kids understand what that means.
How can they know that that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord? (Romans 8:39-39)
Happy Easter, friends!
When I sit down and think about my passions, one of the things that pops up at the top of the list is hospitality. I am passionate about home. Not my home. But home, in general. I’m passionate about serving and creating and loving.
I even got my masters degree in hospitality management. It’s true.
I love cooking. I love hosting. I love the sound of people in my home as they laugh and share stories and connect.
More than hospitality, though, I am passionate about community. It’s why I invite people into our home. It’s why I share my stories here and open myself up. Because I want you all to do the same thing. I want you to find that community and share those stories and connect.
But here’s the truth about my journey with hospitality.
When we lived in our old bungalow, I was too hung up on the cramped layout of our home and our home’s imperfections and our home’s smallness to invite. I made excuses and said that the kitchen was too small and was too far from the family room. In five years, we only hosted people four or five times.
It took not having the opportunity to show hospitality that gave me the courage and the full-on passion to invite and open the doors. For 13 months, I missed the freedom to host. I wanted so badly to invite friends over to play or for dinner. And it was in those long months that I realized the truth about hospitality.
It’s not about having the perfect home or the big kitchen or the best layout for entertaining. It’s about those relationships and community. It’s about opening my heart and getting real with people, and giving them a place to get real, too.
I love beautiful things and we did spend a year building our house. I’m sure it seems easy for me to say, now, that hospitality is easy. But it’s not easy because of this house. It’s easy because I love our friends. I love sitting next to a friend on the couch with our feet on the furniture and sipping coffee and sharing insecurities and triumphs.
I would invite you all over to do that very thing today if I could!
In the next few weeks, I hope to share pieces of our home with you. In my eyes, it’s not perfect and it’s not finished. But it’s not about perfection or completion. We live here and we host friends here and this home is a place for us to love each other and open the doors for friends and family.
My dogs have scratched the floor. They shed. My boys drive their toy cars on the walls and there are already little marks there. We’ve splattered red sauce on the counter tops. We live here fully and want others to feel like they can, too, when they visit.
What I need is community. I need the freedom and the grace to be authentic. So hospitality, to me, is giving others the invitation to do the same.
How is it possible that parenting is the most terrifying thing and the most wonderful thing in the world? But it is, right?
In those first moments of holding Hudson, I doubted myself and my abilities, but I was overwhelmed with love for him. As he and Hayes have gotten older, I’ve become even more afraid. I’m afraid of the future and the unknown of how they’ll grow up. The exposure to things at an earlier age, the changing world and my inability to shield them and protect them.
I yell and lose my patience. I let my emotions take away my ability to show grace. I pray for the courage to let them walk into the doors of kindergarten soon, and I also pray for the courage to let them drive out of the driveway. And then to move away. Into this world full of unknowns and new experiences.
And as we face my mom’s cancer and the uncertainty that her diagnosis brings us all, we find extreme comfort in the very real fact that He is alive. He lives.
I’m so grateful for His grace. The gift of His life and His resurrection. And how the good news changes everything.
I’ll just let these classic hymn lyrics do the talking.
How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives;
But greater still the calm assurance:
This child can face uncertain days because He Lives!
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!
Good morning! I can’t believe how quickly the weekend flew by. I feel like I have a lot of little updates to share today, and it’s been a while since I’ve done a good, old-fashioned brain dump.
1. Hudson’s tonsillectomy recovery continues to go well. That boy has the highest pain tolerance. It’s almost scary. He sleeps through the night beautifully, but wakes up and says his throat hurts. We’re gradually decreasing his pain meds, but we make sure he gets them right before bed and first thing in the morning. He’s also had a little bit of a “mean” reaction to the anesthesia. Just some typical almost-5-year-old attitude problems. But he’s mostly been a great little patient.
2. My mom came into town on Thursday. She had been helping a friend of ours with some home decor projects in Raleigh. So Peyton and Mom drove in on Thursday. It was fun to visit with Peyton and catch up with her, and mom is staying through Easter. The kids are on Spring Break this week (preschools have Spring Break?) and it is the perfect time for a visit from KK.
3. Todd and I were invited to go with our good friends to The Masters on Friday. I had never been before. It’s only an hour from Columbia, so we just zipped down there for the day. It was such a fun day. So beautiful and relaxing. Augusta National is so impressive. It’s absolutely beautiful, but I was just so impressed with how efficient everything is. (I actually compared it to Disney World, but I don’t know if Todd was amused by that.)
4. We had a great weekend taking care of some house projects and a great morning at church yesterday. I had my monthly girls night with my good friends. We went to Cafe Caturra and then finally went to see Divergent. I liked it! It’s definitely geared toward teens and it’s been a long time since I finished the book, but I liked it a lot.
5. I’m starting the Advocare 24 Day Challenge again after Easter. I’m not sure there’s much else to say about that except that summer is coming and I need a kick in the pants!
6. We flip-flopped on whether or not we’d have a birthday party for Hayes this year or just a family party. We ended up going with something in-between. A small birthday party with his good friends and our family. Should be a lot of fun and seriously low fuss. (I hope.)
