We Need Each Other

Sometimes having extra people in your home complicates your life. It should not be so, because we are to be given to hospitality. If that hospitality comes out of the heart of God, it should be an act of love, not a fulfillment of a need. Resentment can come in if it is just filling someone's need.

But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 1 Peter 4:7-9

Without grudging simply means without murmuring complaining. The Lord may have sent this person as a gift to you. He may expect you to invite the unlovely and entertain him as if he were the Lord himself.

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; [and] them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
Hebrews 13:1-3

We need each other. Living simply may be a gift, but it must include the body. We are all a part of God's body. We need each other to be who He saw before the foundations of the world. You may be just the one to provide that missing piece in someone's life. You may have just the encouraging word they need to hear, the hug they need to feel, the meal they need to taste to see that the Lord is good.

Many Hands Make Light Work

Saturday I had almost 25 women at the house making favors for our church's baby showers. So far we have eight scheduled before fall. We are a very pregnant church.
In three hours we finished favors for four of the showers and had a ball doing it.
Whether it is the first baby or the fifth, we celebrate the life given to us by the Father.
The shower is a celebration of that coming life, not a place to get the loot. In fact, folks are told if they can't bring a gift, that's fine. Come for fellowship and support for the family. The women helpers were from 13 to age 74. There was no generation gap here.
Each shower is different and tailored to the new baby or Mom. Saturday we made lion and lamb note holders, diapers out of baby scrapbook paper, pillow boxes, cartoon-lined goody bags and other decorations.
As always there was chocolate for fuel.
If you come to my house, which is an old 1930's Arts and Crafts style, you are greeted as family. Most know where the tea pot and coffee are. You just help yourself. More often than not Mary Cornelius is my social director. She has such an way of making people feel comfortable.
I have a long cabinet in my wide hallway with craft supplies, so there is always something on hand should we change the design midstream or the concept just does look the way we envisioned.
Many hands make light work, but it makes the heart light as well.