Right when prompt came up for this week’s Five-minute Friday, I logged onto Facebook to let my blogging buddy know the prompt this week would be “Open.” Much to my surprise, I saw I had a direct message from the mother of one of my daughter’s friends and so I opened it, only to find that she had written in another language—Portuguese.
Spanish, I know. Portuguese, not so much. But I figured since they have the same Latin base, I might be able to figure it out. I think I did. And her sweet message brought tears to my eyes.
You see, my daughter has been scheming ways to improve her Portuguese (she went to Argentina last year to improve her Spanish and ended up learning a lot of Portuguese from her Brazilian friends) this summer. She wants to study through her university’s foreign language acquisition program for a month, and then she cooked up a plan with a friend to live with his family for another month once he returns to school.
Tonight, his mother wrote to me to introduce herself and to let me know that even though they live a simple life, they would love to have Sarah stay with them and would treat her with great care and affection.
When I think about it, I’m so touched that complete strangers to me would reach out—even knowing that there’s a language barrier—to let us know that their home is open to our daughter: a girl they have only met once.
How often do I worry and fret about whether or not I should open my home to others, invite them in to my life—because I think my house isn’t tidy enough or I regret that I have no sofa for people to sit on?
And yet this lovely woman has invited Sarah into her home for a month—simply because she has a big heart full of Christian love.
It’s not what’s in my home that matters—it’s what’s in my heart that counts. #fmfparty #hospitality Click To TweetI needed this reminder that I need to stay open to new friends and new adventures in hospitality. After all, John says in 3 John 1:5 “Dear friend, when you extend hospitality to Christian brothers and sisters, even when they are strangers, you make the faith visible.”
When was the last time you made your faith visible? I’m ashamed to confess that it’s been awhile for me.
