I just want to encourage you that there are definitely different seasons of life. You are in a season where you need to keep things more simple. We love to serve homemade waffles on Sunday evenings to our guests, as it is frugal and easy. We always get rave reviews! This is a fun tradition my family started growing up. We also keep things more simple by just scheduling two hospitality times per month – one to reach out to neighbors or unbelievers and the other to continue to build relationships in the body. This has assisted in preventing getting overly stressed.

As to the point about being discerning, the main thought here is considering wisely the influence your guests may have upon your family and especially your children. For example, allowing your children to spend too much time with unsaved neighborhood children without your supervision may not bring about the best results. That is her point I believe.

Secondly, as to maintaining a orderly home. The authors go into this in more detail in the next chapter, but I believe the emphasis is maintaining a basically organized home. There is no perfection called for here, but rather some assemblance of order to be prepared especially for impromptu guests. I see this as keeping your possessions simplified so you do not have to maintain alot of stuff and also a basic schedule for housecleaning and pickup, including the children in the process. It sounds like you may need to just let go sometimes as well. Pouring hours and hours into it can prevent you from being hospitable because you are overworking and stressing yourself out. Your company will not feel relaxed if you are overworked…so let some of those cleaning things go. During this season, I don’t focus on in-depth cleaning but rather just a house basically picked up. That’s it!

You have shared some good ideas for simplifying in this season. Cut back definitely! Find a basic easy meal that works great and everyone loves…such as pizza! Your guests will be more impacted by your invitation and love over whether or not you serve a gourmet meal. Another idea is to double up a dinner you make earlier on and have that ready to serve from the freezer. This will cut back on your preparations the day of. As much as you can accomplish in advance, the less stress you will have that day.

It is a more difficult season to be hospitable, but it is definitely important not to throw in the towel completely. Pray together with your husband how you can cut back and still exercise hospitality in a easier more balanced and restful manner.

God bless!

Keep an orderly home, and yet busy-ness is not godliness: How can I possibly do this? I try and try but with 3 small children, one a baby needing lots of feedings throughout the day, my house is never company ready unless I pour hours and hours into it after they are in bed. And I’m not a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning. Even if all I do is tend the kids I’m busy all day long. I hear so much about taking a day of rest and not being busy and yet I’m wondering how I can possibly not be busy short of giving the kids up for adoption!
I want so badly to be hospitable, and we have been in the past before we had kids, but I feel like having company over nearly kills me with the work load of it all. Maybe during this season I need to step back a bit from having company over or do it less (or order pizza instead of cooking?) I have experimented with serving simple lunches (baked potatoes) that are cheap due to our tight budget and asking the guests to bring something to contribute to the meal. But then the meal is so busy with all of our little ones that I feel we didn’t get to visit much anyhow! This is a hard stage of life!