Family Life

12.12.12 | Martha Manikas-Foster

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We like the idea of inviting our friends over—that’s part of why we’re friends—and we especially like doing this around Christmas and the celebration of the coming of the new year. But there’s a certain pressure that comes packaged with inviting people to our homes--and that pressure ramps up in December. Just one look at the recipes and home décor pages of magazines like Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living--and even the local grocery store menu magazines--and it’s enough to scare most of us away from ever opening the front door to a friend. We don’t have the time—and can’t manufacture enough energy--to even try to “measure up” to what we see as this high standard for hospitality.

Deep down we know that hospitality isn’t about perfectly replicating a Martha Stewart centerpiece. It’s not about performance. Beneath the twinkle lights and raffia bows, hospitality is an act of service. And when we offer that hospitality in the name of Jesus Christ, it’s an opportunity for “showing Christ’s love through you,” according to today’s Inside Out guest Rebeca Freytes Chico DePra. It’s about having a willing heart dedicated to Jesus, a humble spirit, and a focus on forgiveness.

“Hospitality is not about us, it really isn’t,” she says. “If you go back to the people whom you always remember—they were so hospitable--it was never those who were self-centered and said, ‘Look, wow, the amazing job I did on my house or look at the amazing job I did at this turkey.’”

Join Inside Out for a conversation with Rebeca Freytes Chico DePra, who is currently updating her 2009 book Hospitality in a Nutroll.

To listen to the conversation, click on the “Listen” icon above.

To connect with Rebeca Freytes Chico DePra, log on to www.rebecafdepra.talkspot.com

Have a reflection on hospitality? Leave it below.

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