A Heaping Helping of Hospitality

She gets up while it is still night; 

she provides food for her family…

Proverbs 31:15

  

Some of my favorite memories of Granny include food.

She made the best cornbread dressing I’ve ever tasted. It’s almost impossible to duplicate because she didn’t use a recipe. She just poured some of this, a little of that, stirred and added more till it tasted right.

One Thanksgiving, I watched her make the dressing, and I wrote down everything she used. Yet I can’t make it taste like hers.

Christmastime meant cookies. And lots of them. Chocolate chip. Sand tarts. Haystacks.  Snickerdoodles. Peanut Butter cookies. Sugar Cookies. Just to name a few. In her cooking heyday, she started making Christmas cookies right after Halloween.

By Christmas, she brought out about 12 different kinds of cookies for us to enjoy. That’s sheer delight to a child!

She earned blue ribbons at the county fair for her pickles, recipes and jellies. She loved cooking, and everyone around her benefitted.

Granny used ordinary things like mixing bowls, measuring cups, pots and pans to do God’s work. She used them to show love to her family, friends and church members. People loved coming to her house.

Each year, she invited her Sunday School class into her home for a Christmas dinner. She decorated every room for Christmas, brought out her Christmas china and shared whatever she had. At age 92, she was scheduled to host this year’s Christmas gathering.

I’m not near as good of a cook as my Granny. My husband wonders how the talent escaped my generation. Yet still, I can make a few good items. And I have access to a great bakery!

So I might not be able to cook like Granny, but I can still show hospitality to others. I can use what I have and welcome others into my home for fellowship just like my Granny did.

I Peter 4:9-10 tells us to offer hospitality to others and to use whatever gifts we have to serve others.

What gifts do you have?  How are you using them to serve others?

Stacy