Regina 
There’s little I like more than planning out a menu for a meal shared with friends. It’s just one of those things I have taken to for as long as I can remember. I like to do something that is very unusual for me and dive down into the details of things and tweak them to make them all just right when serving meals in our home. I do this without respect to occasion. It could be for my own sweet family for brunch or dinner or for friends or for strangers or for coworkers from my husband’s work; I delight in this work. And I love a good table setting and place cards. Even a table set with paper plates can be well set with a little forethought. One thing I know, whether cooking & baking are your things or not, is that home was meant for family and the welcoming of strangers and good friends. There is no way around it. Fellowship in the context of home is the business of the church. If our Savior commemorated His death and resurrection with a meal, our lives will be marked by them as well. There’s a remembrance that can happen around a dinner table that is unlike even what happens in the context of the congregation in the church. There are words spoken, prayers prayed out loud, life shared that may bring glory to Christ Jesus and that is a beautiful thing. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Mundane events happening in rapid succession again and again and again, yet they may become sacred moments if our hearts are set rightly.
The significance of the home is often underestimated. It is here that newborn babies are brought swaddled into. It is here that young children learn of Christ Jesus & decide to put their faith in Him or not. It is in this space that marriages are made or broken. It is within the walls of homes that things find their beginning, middle, and end. We sleep here. We wake here. We often eat here, so the amount of thought we put into the culture of our home is not wasted. It is a good work. Do not grow weary in your homemaking as exhausting as the task might be. Whether you have a set of boys crawling on the counter tops and wrestling room to room or you have little ballerinas playing with dress up things or, like me, the best of both worlds, we can create homes that beautifully and effectively offer grace to others. It is possible in every season to do this.
…and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Titus 2:4-5
I want to begin the week by telling you a story, a story of the power of the Gospel, the dinner table, and the living room floor.
It was Thanksgiving and all the familiar smells of the season engulfed our home. A turkey roasted in the oven, homemade pies steamed, candles were lit, and our door was open. There are many wonderful family traditions, but we have chosen to stay at our own home for the holidays. This has brought a level of peace to these much anticipated occasions and our family has often joined us here. This particular year we also invited along those who did not have a place to land for the holiday. A sweet friend who planned to join us asked if she could bring a friend of hers, a stranger to us. She let me know that this precious young woman had heard the Gospel but had not yet decided to follow Jesus. Well, if you don’t me, I L O V E to share the Good News of the Gospel and had such hope and faith that this moment might be a sacred one in which this young woman might be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His Beloved Son. The catch was this young woman had a rather complicated past that included drugs, jail, and things of that nature, but Chris & I decided we to open our home anyway. How eternally thankful I am for that choice. After sharing a meal and a bit of life, I got to share the my testimony and the glorious Gospel with this precious one and, as only Christ can, He captured her heart in those moments sitting in front of our fireplace, with many tears she prayed and confessed Christ.
Last week, we began a conversation about home that I hope to continue this week, because home is not only a place we ought to work to make beautiful, but a place we ought to make serve Christ’s kingdom. We set our homes in particular ways so that we may minister in the ways Christ calls. This will be our joy to give ourselves away for the good of another. Take away the clutter, remove the materialism, let every self-conscious thought go, and let the need for perfection fade, and you’ll find yourself with a place that is ready for the good works God prepared beforehand that you should walk in. In some way or another the dining table will be significant to this ministry you hold, both to your husband, your children, and those you graciously humbly invite in.
One of the primary reasons I wrote last week’s posts is to allow you to begin to position your home in a manner that not only pleases the eye, but in a manner that frees you to be ready to host, to help, to harbor people at a moment’s notice. Part One: The Grace Full Home & Part Two: The Making of a Dream House
If you think about why you don’t want people to come over, more times than we care to admit, it is because things are not “straightened up” and so our home does not look as we’d hope. That is an excuse we can free ourselves of if we put our hands to the work of making our homes a ready space for our families and our guests. It is easier to think of others when you’ve freed up much needed mental space to think in the first place, because let’s be honest we do not think well when laundry is piled up to the sky and every space is full of stuff we don’t want in it. I’m not just talking about throwing dinner parties where every detail is attended to at length…
I’m talking about the kind of hospitality that can erupt from a heart filled with Spirit. The kind of hospitality that is easier to put into practice when the home is superficially ready for the supernatural ministry that takes place around a table: discipleship, fellowship, prayer, laughter, and the like.
Not only will the ministry to your own family be strengthened by simplifying your home, but your ministry to others just might grow. It is not the way things look that is ultimate, but whether or not your home is ready enough for you to be obedient when the time comes.
This week we will talk about how to prepare for guests and create a delightful atmosphere that encourages fellowship and openness that brings about discipleship and evangelistic opportunity. We will also talk a little about design style and my top tips for creating home that looks like you want it to. This series on home will likely go down as one of my favorites. There’s just really no summing up how much I love the ministry of home and the gift it is to others.
