One Enjoyable Way to Serve Together in Marriage

What ministry can all couples do together in marriage?

No matter what season you are in or how tight your budget is, there is a highly rewarding practice that brings community together and blesses everyone present, especially when your heart attitude is in the right place. 

Can you guess what it is?

Hospitality!

Sometimes excuses come up as soon as we read that word, but there is a solution for every excuse:

• Our house is too messy (hear Clean Mama’s remedy)
• Our budget is too tight (Natalie Taylor offers creative solutions in Align Your Finances with Your Values and Sarah Harmeyer’s ideas are compelling from Relationships and Opportunities)
• I’m an introvert (tune in on November 1st to our upcoming Patreon episode where Morgan Tyree will encourage every type of personality to host within their God-given temperament)
• I was never taught how to host (listen to Devi Titus share her wisdom in Supernatural Power Present While Gathering at the Table)

When we strip away our excuses, what is our real resistance? Is there a way to creatively problem-solve with our spouse to find a healthy solution?

And, why should we practice hospitality?

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20 (KJV)

Who doesn’t want Jesus gathered in the midst of them?! And this doesn’t just apply to married people, it applies to all individual believers!

Here are a few great ideas we’ve collected from married couples and families relating to hospitality:

*Choose one consistent night of the week and one unchanging, simple meal to make that evening. Expect and plan your calendar around opening your home that night. Then reach out to a new person/couple/family to invite over each week. (I learned this idea from my friend, Julie. Do you remember her from Guiding Our Children Through Their Emotions and Shame’s Journey to Freedom?) This stretches us to be in the posture of looking for opportunities to meet new people!

*Set goals as a family. Shawn Mazelin (remember her from Meaningful Holiday Traditions and Mentoring and Hospitality?) and her family committed to hosting together with the goal of having every single person from their (large) church come to their home to share a meal. They have met some amazing people in the process, inspired others to go after the same goal, and their children have carried this tradition forward since leaving their home. What a legacy!

*Devi Titus ties Scripture together to teach us how God intended for our table to be a place for healing, restoration, and pointing us to the supernatural presence of Jesus. Hear her wisdom in Supernatural Power Present While Gathering at the Table. If you’ve ever desired a mentor on this topic, try also reading her book, Home Experience. 

Sarah Harmeyer has creative ideas for every budget, such as inviting people to gather for a potluck meal or popcorn or dessert. Hear her beautiful and compelling story in Relationships and Opportunities that Arise From Using Your Gifts. 

*Natalie Taylor from Align Your Finances with Your Values, Answering Common Financial Questions, and Financial Wisdom shared a fun family idea: She, her husband, and their two sons take turns every Sunday for “family dinner” choosing which family to host. It stretches all four of them to make new friends and each family member is especially excited for their week to choose which family to invite! It’s a great way to meet their children’s school friends and share their community of friends with their kids. 

*Rachel Tiemeyer from Practical Tips for Eating Dinner Together as a Family  explains how we can creatively use freezer meals and have freezer meal parties with friends to accommodate busy family schedules!

*In Feeding Your Family Part 1 and Part 2, I loved sharing practical tips for hospitality.

*Finally, this children’s book repeatedly ministers to me on this topic 🙂

I hope all these ideas inspire you to gather together! 

The opposite of gathering together is isolating yourself, and that’s no good!

“He who [willfully] separates himself [from God and man] seeks his own desire, He quarrels against all sound wisdom.” Proverbs 18:1 (AMP)

And in case you need more motivation, how cool is this Truth?!

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2 (ESV)

What are some other benefits? Our marriage is strengthened as we exercise our serving muscles together, we grow closer as a family through putting others above ourselves, our children grow up learning how to unselfishly offer this gift to others, and our community feels more connected through being included around the table. All of this is glorifying to God!

I am encouraging myself right alongside encouraging you. We can read Scripture to discover the why! Or if you want a shortcut, here’s my take-away lesson of what the Bible has to say about hospitality . . . It can be summed up in these three words: Pursue and practice.

“contributing to the needs of God’s people, pursuing [the practice of] hospitality.” Romans 12:13 (AMP)

Let’s pursue people with the love that is in us because Christ loves us more than we can imagine, and let’s practice hospitality to benefit others (and likely end up enjoying it ourselves too)!

I’m not sure about all the supernatural mysteries that occur when we practice hospitality and share a meal together around the table, but it sure does seem to be important to Jesus as we read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!

Hospitality is extremely powerful and it is the practice God seems to use to make Romans 12, specifically verses 10-12 possible: 

“Be devoted to one another with [authentic] brotherly affection [as members of one family], give preference to one another in honor; never lagging behind in diligence; aglow in the Spirit, enthusiastically serving the Lord; constantly rejoicing in hope [because of our confidence in Christ], steadfast and patient in distress, devoted to prayer [continually seeking wisdom, guidance, and strength],“

And this leads us again to verse 13, we are reminded this occurs by “contributing to the needs of God’s people, pursuing [the practice of] hospitality.” Romans 12:13 (AMP)

Supernatural results come from this command to pursue and practice hospitality.

Don’t miss out on the blessings!

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Happy hosting!

Laura