TRUE HOSPITALITY: 3 GOLDEN WAYS TO PRACTICE IT

There's a story about a family who had the pastor over for dinner, and mum asked their five-year-old daughter to say the grace. Puzzled, the child asked, 'What should I say?' Her mum replied, 'Just say what you've heard me say.' So, bowing her head, the little girl prayed, 'Dear God, why on earth did I invite the pastor over to dinner?' (Funny!)

Hospitality is the heart and art of kindness towards visitors and people in general, especially those who cannot really repay us in return. It is the friendly, welcoming and generous treatment offered to guests or strangers.

If we have to be honest, hospitality is hard work! It involves sacrifice and you are to do it without grudge. Why? Because you are representing God. Outlined below are 3 simple, golden ways to truly practice hospitality:

1.         Learn to value people, irrespective of their status: You and I need to learn the art of placing value on people by placing value on their lives, irrespective of their status in the society. True hospitality is about making ourselves valuable to someone else – a third party, by valuing that person first. It means making ourselves available in free service to others, and not necessarily for gain. It also means helping someone who can’t necessarily repay us by doing things that often take us out of our comfort zone.

2.         Cultivate a heart of compassion (especially, for people in need): It's quite easy to extend hospitality to people we know but extending hospitality to people we don’t know is often our greatest challenge. So, how about those we don't know? Those who don't fit in our social circle? Do we ignore them? Certainly not! We need to extend our hospitality more to those in need that we don’t necessarily know or who may never be able to repay us back. This is God’s ultimate intention for hospitality.

3.         Live a life of sacrifice: When it comes to showing hospitality to people, you can always find excuses - you're too busy, you don't want to get involved, and you're uncomfortable around strangers. But God says you represent Him, and that means sacrificing your personal agenda, giving your time and money, lending a helping hand to people you don't know or even like, and seeing others through God's eyes. That's practising hospitality!

As you key into these 3 simple, golden ways of practising true hospitality, I assure you, you will begin to experience improvement in your art of hospitality, in no time. Stay highly hospitable! Do you have an opinion on this subject or simply something to add for the benefit of other readers? Please enter your opinion as a comment below. It will highly be appreciated! You can also give your feedback on this post or on any content on this blog by clicking here. Alternatively, you can use the "contact" found in black color on the right hand side of this blog if you have any comments, suggestions, questions or general feedback. In addition, kindly click the "Like" and "Share" buttons below if this article really inspires you. I encourage you, finally, to check out other powerfully inspiring articles (posts) on this blog. Stay highly hospitable!

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