Southern Hospitality.

Southern Hospitality... Not a tangible thing, but an attitude which has been ingrained in southerners forever. It's a feeling of being sincerely welcomed as a guest or a long lost friend; a way of life that lets people be as warm as the climate. It's an easiness in speaking with total strangers or anyone, a unique friendliness encompassing the whole way of life in the deep south. 
It's not something one does, it's the way one is. -Dee Jackson

Can I just say that I am completely obsessed with all things Southern?! OK, here goes... I am obsessed with all things Southern! I love southern style houses and decor. Wrap around porches, with swings and rockers and lots of ferns hanging from the cedar rafters, give me the same butterflies that I got when I met my husband. I drink tea, serve biscuits and gravy, make homemade pies and there are random stems of dried lavender is almost every room of my home. I could go on and on, but you get the point. It all just makes my heart flutter. It defines ME! The thing about this whole "southern lifestyle" that draws me in the most is the nature of the hospitality. Hospitality is a huge thing for me! It is important to me that people find me friendly, warm and welcoming, encouraging and positive, and most of all, just KIND! Few things make me angrier than to see someone be unkind to another person. I. Do. Not. Like. It. At. All. As a woman I never wish to tear another woman down because I know what it is like to feel insecure, and it's not a fun feeling. Why would I knowingly place someone in that spot? As a wife, I want to be faithful and true to my husband and my family and encourage, as well as receive encouragement from other wives in my path. As a mother, I strive to never compete or compare myself to the likes of other mothers around me. I need help mothering, I do not have all of the answers. I say all of that to say this... we all need love, support and kindness for these areas of our lives and if we cannot communicate friendliness with others, we will never get the help we need.

Jacob Abbott, in 1835 writes this:
"Conversation flows cheeringly, for the southern gentleman has a particular tact in making a guest happy. After dinner you are urged to pass the afternoon and night and if you are a gentleman in manners and information, your host will be in reality highly gratified by your so doing. Such is the character of southern hospitality."

As much as I love providing southern hospitality in my home, even more so should I strive to provide hospitality to the world, as a Christian. I truly believe, with all of my heart, that people today are starved for the ministry of hospitality. Sadly, Christians today are so worried with keeping this facade up to the world. A facade that says, "I've never been where you are, you've gone alot farther that I ever did." or "If you can get your life together, then maybe we can sit down and talk." Let me remind you of a story in the Bible that we've mostly all heard before, but it is a wonderful example of hospitality.

 Zacchaeus was a tax collector and is widely considered to be a crook and thief of the people in Jericho. He was hated by those he stole from and God was not pleased with his actions. He was a sinner. We all know the story of when Jesus passed by and saw Zacchaeus in the Sycamore tree, he asked for him to come down, and said he would be at his house that day. What is so inspiring about this story is that Jesus did not even have to chasten Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus immediately flooded with sorrow and recompense. It was when he felt Jesus initiate a friendship with him, did it soften his heart. God wants to be our friend. He made man because He was lonely. God is the creator, He is our master and He deserves the utmost respect, but He desires to be our friend as well. He shows a spirit of hospitality because he knew that people would need a feeling of love and affection, someone to take honest interest in their lives.

I encourage you to take into account the unchurched members of your family, your friend at the workplace or the person you meet on the walking trail, they are looking to you to show love and kindness with a dose of Jesus. We are called to minister and witness. We are called to bring the lost in to the fold of Jesus. We are called to LOVE. Approach everyone you meet with hospitality. It will get you much further.