Practice Hospitality

Welcome!🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊

I have titled this post Practice Hospitality, because all the points we will discuss, except one, relate to this. 

Also, these lessons were taken from Romans 13 (NLT). There are many beautiful lessons in that passage (and I'd love to see your own lessons in the comments😉), but I major on just four of them in this post. Let's dive in!

🌲"Always be eager to practice hospitality." (V 13b) You may not like being hospitable, you may not know how to do it, or you may be a novice at doing it. Whichever is your case, practicing it will make you better at it. Keep doing it! Make it a job. Consciously and constantly go out of your way to be hospitable - whether you're a naturally kind person or not; be it to a stranger or to someone you already know. 

Verse 16 says "Don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people." Ordinary may imply "not your typical friend", but we are to be hospitable to them anyway.

I'm sure you've read that scripture which talks about how Abraham entertained angels (and might I add, saved his nephew - Lot) by simply being hospitable. You don't know who you'll meet while you're busy being hospitable. A special shout-out to the single ladies...✌️

🌲"Take delight in honouring each another." (V 10) Delight. Whoosh! It gives me chills! 

Thesaurus.com defines delight as: a high degree of pleasure or enjoyment; joy; rapture. The verse doesn't just say you should honour the other person, but that you should also take delight in doing it - do it with a high degree of pleasure! 

You  know how we respond with "The pleasure is mine" or "It was my pleasure" when someone appreciates us for something? Many times we just say it because it's cliché, not because we mean it. How about we really mean it whenever we say it henceforth? And that can only happen when we do those things with pleasure; with delight!

This is also a great tip for couples: Learn to outdo your spouse/partner in honouring them, and do it with excitement and enjoyment! Look forward to the next big surprise you'll give them, or the next little but significant gesture you'll show them. Honour someone today, and don't forget to do it with delight! 

My experience: As at the time I was writing this draft, I began to think about what surprise I could give to my husband... Yeah, we study and learn to apply😁! So, I thought of what I could do for him. Coincidentally, we had a celebration coming up so it was perfect timing! 

I settled on what to do and started planning towards it. It initially looked like a daunting task - the time was short, a lot of logistics would be involved, and many other excuses. So I was tempted to give up, but I was also determined to pull this one off. And God blessed my determination. To say the least, my husband was amazed and speechless! And I... I was fulfilled. That's what honouring the other person does to you.

🌲Genuinely and sincerely love others (V 9). I said this in my last post: It's high time we re-evaluated why we do the things that we do! For instance, why do you show love to people? If you understand why you do it, then you should do it sincerely! Really really love people! Don't do it with a fake smile on your face. Don't ask whether they are fine just because it's the routine. Genuinely care for people. Genuinely ask how they are doing and wait till you get a satisfactory answer. Help out if you find that they are having struggles, especially in these times. Put your personal struggles aside for a moment, and help someone else.

🌲Measure yourself against yourself - your faith walk should be on a steady increase (V 3). Note that it didn't say to measure yourself with another person. No one's faith walk should be our standard of measurement. The Passion Translation of verse 3 says to "assess your worth by using your God-given faith as the standard of measurement." So your faith should be the standard for measuring your progress in God!  Each day, each week, each month and each year, measure the progress in your faith walk against the previous day, week, month, and year. 

Okay! I hope you learnt a thing or two from this, or were just reminded of an important point you need to practice more.

I look forward to our next discussion. In the meantime, enjoy the last day in June, and happy new month in advance! Oh, and it was my pleasure to share this with you!😉

Shalom!

Precious.