Hearts at Home

Have you ever felt alone as a mom? Lost in your chosen field of mothering?

There is an organization that was created to encourage, educate and equip women in the profession of motherhood. Hearts at Home helps thousands of moms love their lives through their many resources including conferences, website, and books.

Recently I partnered up with this organization as a blogger. Over time I hope to share with you the many resources this ministry has to offer (old ones and new). To learn more about the Hearts at Home Blogging team go here.

In the meantime I would like to encourage you to explore their website and blog for an immediate dose of mothering encouragement.

Hospitality Begins at Home

Last week I shared how we can welcome others into our home and make them feel special. This week I want to offer some tips on how we can minister to our families. After all, hospitality begins at home.

Mealtimes
Make mealtimes special for your family. Even though we live in such a busy society, I encourage you to try to eat together as a family at least 2 to 3 times a week. Mealtime doesn’t have to be elaborate. You can make mealtime special just by letting each family member know how much you are thankful for them.

Use mealtime to catch up on each other’s day. Give everyone an opportunity to share what they like about the day as well as what was not so fun. Share prayer requests and have your family pray together for these requests. This is a great way for your family to draw closer.

Try having a theme night. Maybe you can do this once a week or just once a month, but the idea is to get everyone excited about the special theme night. You can have a game night, Mexican night, movie night, scrapbook night or book night. Plan your food according to your theme. Put up decorations to make the mood more festive. Your family will love that you’ve taken the time to help them have fun.

Around the House

Celebrate successes and special occasions. When your child has done exceptionally well at school, have a small celebration and present her with flowers to show her how proud you are. For birthdays, go all out and decorate with balloons and make sure you have a cake. Celebrate as a family what God is doing in your lives.

Write encouraging notes to each other. Leave notes in lunch boxes and briefcases to let your family know how much you love them. They will be pleasantly surprised to find them throughout the day.

Create a wall of faith. Hang pictures or framed Bible verses that show how God has been at work in your family’s life. You might even have other memorabilia that could be put in shadow boxes. Use this as a conversation piece when you have company over. It’s a great way to share your testimony.

Our family should come first when we think about hospitality. Try some of these ideas to show your family how much you care about them. I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions as well.

What's Your Name?

My family recently returned from a cruise to the Western Caribbean. We had such a great time together. Reflecting on our trip I realized that one reason we had so much fun was because of our waiter, Martin. He was a wonderful young man from the Czech Republic. With his beautiful accent and charming ways, he made sure we felt welcome when we came to dinner each evening. Now, I realize that he was doing his job, but observing his service made me think about ways we can make our guests feel more comfortable when we invite them into our homes.

The first thing Martin did when we met him was to learn our names. You might think that is standard for all the waiters, but it is not. We actually did not meet Martin until our second evening on the cruise. We originally had a different seating time and waiter. Our first waiter was very nice and attentive, but he never inquired about our names. We were moved to an earlier seating the next day and were placed in Martin’s care. Martin not only addressed us by name at dinner, he remembered us whenever he saw us on the ship.

Our names are important. Everyone wants to be known by someone. What I am taking away from this experience is that if we really want to get to know someone, we must know their name. And by knowing their name, we get to know them and who they really are. With our fast paced and hectic lives we do not take the time to get to know people on a deep, intimate level.

My challenge this week is to invite someone into my home with the purpose of getting to know them better. By forging bonds with other people, we create a sense of community that I feel is lacking in our society today. And when we develop community we strengthen our own families and churches. We have more of a desire to minister to others.

I pray for you this week that God will reveal to you someone you need to encourage by getting to know them better. Please add your comments to this post and share how you get to know others.

APRIL GIVEAWAY
This month’s giveaway is the book The Busy Mom’s Guide by Kathy Peel. If you leave a comment on my blog anytime in the month of April your name will go into a drawing for the book.