Nearly every night after dinner Dave reads a chapter of the Bible and we pray. Sometimes we even remember to do this when we have guests. We are trying to start a "family tradition" of a devotional time around the dinner table. Spiritual food is just as important as physical food, and combining the two reminds us of that.
We have also enjoyed making a good start at being hospitable, with guests at our table at least once or twice a week so far. Welcoming people into our home is one of the priorities we have for our marriage. I have been delighted to enjoy exercising hospitality with Dave, as he is an excellent host. He is also very encouraging with regard to my efforts at cooking and table decorating! It is wonderful to be able to minister to others as a Christian couple united in Christ. We were delighted last week to be able to act upon the true meaning of hospitality - love of strangers - through having two people we hardly knew for dinner. We had never met one of them before! We look forward to having two more sets of people around for a meal in the coming week. We often thank God for enabling us to be hospitable, and for blessing us so much in the process.
Sherrin ~ wonderful! You are starting married life off exercising hospitality and having folks over already! I'm sure you were blessed by them and they in turn were blessed by your friendship toward them.
ReplyDeleteI am so encouraged and also compliment Dave on taking the lead to establish a good family devotional time around the table.
Your table is beautiful!
What a gorgeous table! I loved doing that when my Dave and I were newlyweds (back in the early 1990's!). Then came children.....ah yes....but...I always set an attractive table, we made it a point to have dinner together each evening (and still do) and we also started a devotional tradition right after dinner. Now that the children are older, we are finding different times to incorporate our spiritual meal but....it is still an important part of our daily lives.
ReplyDeleteHow great that you are being so hospitable as newlyweds too and showing the Love of Jesus through your actions!
thanks so much for opening your home to us last night. i enjoyed the fellowship and being able to take part in your family worship.
ReplyDeletehugs
I love your example of hospitaity! Its nice that you feel comfortable to share your home. So often the idea of going out to inner is everywhere and coming over for dinner is rare.
ReplyDeleteSherrin,
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful to hear, as Deb said, that you and your husband are devoted to serving Christ and your neighbor through hospitality! Have you read any great writings on hospitality? Here is a writing I found worth reading in case it will also be beneficial to you: http://hometown.aol.com/gailnstevedunbar/joyfulhome1.html
That is a pretty table setting (nicely brought out by that rich purple-y color) .
Thanks for your encouragement, ladies. I have been really blessed by each of your comments.
ReplyDeleteLindsy, I couldn't access the site you linked to but I will try the address again soon! I do like to read about this topic.
I believe I had the same problem on another blog with a different address, so it appears that people can't post links longer than the comment space. Thus I am including the link this time with some spaces in it. http://hometown.aol.com/
ReplyDeletegailnstevedunbar/
joyfulhome1.html
It seems that my computer actually has problems with just the base address: hometown.aol.com
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why, but it sends me a "timed out" message whenever I try to access it! If you like you can email me the article to sherrindrewATgmail.com
Thanks for trying to share the link with me! Sorry I can't access it!
Sherrin,
ReplyDeleteI e-mailed you the writing. The format is a mess and resembles a mass e-mail people keep forwarding to each other, as I couldn't manage to control enough of the formatting, but at least the writing should reach you now :)
Oops. I got a message saying the e-mail never sent and found out I had tried to mail it to "@blogspot.com" for some reason! This time I think I got the address correct, so you should have an e-mail anytime now.
ReplyDelete