Browsing Tag

Hospitality

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Winner #3: Deborah Dull

Posted on December 20, 2024

This entry is a boatload  (or a sleigh-load) of compassion, energy and creativity, with a big Santa sack of hospitality thrown on top!  I cannot love this more. So often, we become selfish with the opportunities that come during the holidays. I do think it’s a fine thing to have some private family moments and traditions. But we (I) have to do better about being willing to open our doors and hearts to those who may be a little less likely to be merry-making in current circumstances. This is a “winner” from Deborah Dull:

 

Christmas was a big deal at my mom’s house. My parents lived in a small community called Zellwood, Florida. On Christmas Eve my mother always had open house for anybody that lived in the community. She had been cooking for days and of course, any leftovers went to the local fire department. My dad played Santa Claus and rode around town giving out small gifts. when I got married things did not change much. I continued to travel from North Carolina to Florida every year at Christmas time. These are the memories that my daughter has of Christmas at grandmother‘s house.

But as things happen one year, my daughter was gone and my husband and I could not get to Florida. And none of his family was going to be in NC for Christmas. Love the man to death, but I’m not sitting at home on Christmas Day. Just looking at each other. We had a lot of single friends, young and old alike. We called them up and asked them if they would like to come for Christmas morning breakfast. We had eight that first year. And in the years to come, we had as many as 26.

This tradition is what my grandson grew up, knowing about Christmas. That and cutting down a tree on our farm… And after 26 years, he decided to start this tradition at his house, and I was given a break.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s Kiss #74: Hospital Volunteers

Posted on November 1, 2024

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 74 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

There are few places that bring smiles to young servants in a more eternally fulfilling way than the hallways of hospitals. Truly!

There are a few hospitals here and there that still allow teens to deliver the mail to the residents in volunteer programs. Mostly, though, in our post-modern and post covid world, though, the “candy-stripers” have been replaced by corporate systems that are touted as efficient and safe.

But smart parents are always on the look out for ways to incorporate the sick and hurting into the monthly service regimes of their teen (and even younger) children. Enlist the help of your youth group or church service group to do some or all of the following:

1. Fill little dollar store plastic bins with snack crackers and cookies and water bottles and deliver them to the waiting areas in hospitals with notes of encouragement from your local congregation. Be sure you include directions to your building and contact information with the open offer of meeting with families for prayer.

2. Have your children adopt a floor or wing of the hospital for weekly visiting, room by room. Choose as  safely as possible, but this limited risk is so worth it for your kids.   There are areas of non-infection in most larger hospitals. Consider the NICU or the cancer patients.

3. Have your children make little “laundry lines”  with clothes-pins to attach to the walls of patients who will be staying for a few days, so that they can display their cards. Be sure to have the children go in and attach the first card on the little yarn “clothes-lines”  they have made. Of course, the way your children find out who is staying for a few days is by visiting their floor or wing and conversing. (Today’s privacy rules will not allow the hospital to divulge that information, but many patients are so happy to have visitors and talk about their diagnoses.)

4. Have your children take a couple of friends with them (or your family) and choose a hymn to sing in three of their rooms, monthly, to those who would like to listen or sing along. You can even take the words to the hymn and let the patients read along, but be sure to identify the church and give contact information on the lyrics sheet that you leave.

5. During the Christmas holidays, take a small gift ( a lotion, a candy cane, a little pop-up greeting card, or a little strand of lights for the bedside table–just any little happy gift) to the patients in which your children are “investing”.

The receivers will evolve and the faces will look different monthly, but the givers will respond consistently and their faces will turn ever more  heavenward!

Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalm 34:5

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Family Ties in the Social Distance #39: Proverbs 14:26–A Nation Exalted

Posted on May 7, 2020

My husband, Glenn, is sharing these daily lessons for our West Huntsville family as we are necessarily (because of the virus) spending less time physically together in worship, study and fellowship. We may be “socially distanced,” but  we’re a close-knit family and we want to keep it that way! One way to stay on track together, spiritually, is to think about a common passage and make applications for our lives together even when we are unable to assemble as frequently. I’m sharing these daily family lessons here for those in other places, whose families (or even congregations) might benefit from a common study in these uncommon days of semi-quarantine. There are Family Bible Time guides included, as well. You can adapt, shorten or lengthen them according to the ages of kids (and adults) in your family. Blessings.

From Glenn:  

My Favorite Proverbs:  What Exalts a Nation

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:26).

Be impressed with the hard, cold fact of this statement. So long as this world stands, this will be true. Be reminded that Christianity is a world religion, not merely an American religion.  Our real success as a nation is in proportion to the degree to which we live according to the precepts of God’s Will. So many of the blacks and whites of right and wrong have turned to a sickening grey in the minds of citizens.  One doesn’t have far to look to find a politician who trades in debauchery, deceit, and compromised morality. People may turn a blind eye and elect him or her to whatever office he or she aspires.  We will do better as a nation–be exalted, lifted to a higher place– if we can strengthen voices against sin, as defined in the Bible, and if we can elect leaders who insist on a Biblically-framed virtue in all parts of our government.  

So far as I’m aware, only one U.S. President, James A. Garfield, was a member of the Lord’s church.  As we approach the next election, nothing would please me more for our government than if the executive, legislative and judicial branches were all filled with New Testament Christians; but that’s, of course, unrealistic.  What we must do this November, as in all our elections, is to choose leaders who will do the most to accommodate the cause of Christ in our land.  I’m surprised to have come to the point at which saying the following is realistic rather than a knee-jerk reaction, but it is not hard for me to imagine an America in which Christians are persecuted in ways similar to the ways our early Christian family was persecuted in the first century.  In the interest of my children and grandchildren and, obviously my family in the Lord, I’d like to delay that time as long as possible.  God has blessed us to live in a democracy, a republic, in which we have the vote and voice to choose our leaders.  We must take advantage of that gift and vote with the benefit of Christianity in mind.  May this be our chief motivation; not earthly issues that have no real bearing on the souls of citizens.  

Today, make time to step away from the political wrangling and hatred to lay the interests of our nation again at the feet of God.  Doesn’t He still work in the governments of men?  Don’t allow your heart to be driven by those things which won’t matter in eternity, but rather beg for His will to be done in our government. Then, use your influence, however small, for good.

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (I Tim. 2:1-4).

 

Family Bible Time with Glenn and Cindy:

Tonight’s phrase from Matthew 25 is “I was a stranger and you took me in.”

This one’s a little more difficult to practically apply, especially during a pandemic. But you should try and make your children understand that, although we cannot house all of the people who might be traveling through our area, when we know of Christians who have a need for housing, we should be happy to offer our homes as places for them to stay and our tables as places for them to eat. Even if we know of non-Christians, who need a place, and they come to us recommended by fellow-Christians, we should be happy to use our homes in this service. There are lots of people in our West Huntsville family who routinely offer rooms at home, hotel rooms, meals in their homes and restaurant meals, cabins and couches, for people they’ve not ever even met before. The guests are gospel preachers who visit, people who are moving to our area, those who have temporary work in our area, and those who may be temporarily homeless. There are just many examples all around your children during times of normalcy (non-pandemic times). See if they can think of some and talk to them about how you want to make “our house” available for people, because that’s making it available for the Lord. It’s a serious setting in which the Lord instructed this.

Have big people pretend-call the teeny people on the phone and tell the teenies that they are needing a place to stay and sleep because they are on a journey. Have the teenies respond with “Sure, we have a place,” and let them arrange the blankets on the sofa and put a pillow there and bring a bag with a bar of soap and some toothpaste and a spare toothbrush and put it on the pillow along with a towel (and whatever else you have on hand that a guest could use). Have one of the visiting big people lie there for the rest of the story time, profusely thanking the little person.

Tell the story of 2 Kings 4: 8-17. Be sure your children can name the simple things that the woman of Shunem put in the room for the prophet. Make sure they can also tell you that when she did this she was serving the prophet, but she was, most importantly, serving God. She was helping the prophet  to be able to preach the Word of God. She was helping God to work on this earth. When we offer to house God’s people, we help God’s cause on this earth!

Have your children look around your home and give ideas about how rooms and provisions and appliances can be used to help God’s cause.

Pray with your children. Pray that you will be able to use your home for His glory. Pray specifically for each room, that you will find ways to use your kitchen to feed God’s people, that you will find ways to use the bedrooms to help His people rest, that you will use your living room as a place to share His Word, etc….

We will be a closer family if we are serious about hospitality.

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. #43–Cooking Times Four

Posted on July 14, 2016

Portrait of happy mother and her daughter cooking in the kitchen

As you know, if you’ve been reading, for quite some time, I’ve occasionally been running little installments called “Mama’s K.I.S.S.” I know that lots of readers could give many more and far more creative ideas than I can offer, but these installments are just a few tried and true and mostly old-fashioned ideas for putting service hearts in our kids.  This is number 43 of a list of one hundred ways we train our kids to serve. K.I.S.S. is an acronym for “Kids In Service Suggestions”.

I’m sure you’ve thought of doing this with your kids, but it’s been a real benefit to ministry on several occasions for this family. Every time I make a casserole, a cobbler or a soup of any kind, I multiply all ingredient amounts by four, prepare the ingredients, and then spoon them out into 4-6 casserole dishes (depending on dish sizes), cover them well with heavy-duty foil, and freeze all of them except the one we are having for supper. I usually place the wrapped dishes in individual giant zippy bags to help guard them from freezer burn. I also label the bags with the name of the dish and the instructions for cooking or re-heating the dish. The casseroles and pies are almost always placed in the freezer before the baking, so you can just grab them from the freezer, thaw them and bake according to directions. Soups only need reheating. This is great math for upper-elementary kids, as they multiply the fractions of cups and teaspoons, and it’s great hospitality and benevolence planning for kids (especially daughters) of any age.

I know I don’t need to explain the benefits of this, but here goes. It’s cheaper to buy ingredients in bulk.  It greatly reduces cooking time because it only takes a few more minutes to make four casseroles than it takes to make one. When you do four meals at the time, you have one mess to clean up instead of four. 

But the biggest plus for me is being able to take a dish to a grieving family on the spur of the moment or to enjoy time with visiting family or friends instead of spending all my time cooking and cleaning the kitchen. It’s great to be able to have food on hand for Sunday dinners or fellowship meals. It’s great to be able to take a meal to someone who has just gotten home from the hospital or to someone who has a sick child. Best of all, your kids are watching and absorbing this active freezer ministry which just becomes a part of your family’s routine. It would be worth the price of my deep freezer many times over just for the consistency of hospitality and benevolence that it afforded our family. Of course we were still not even close to thorough or perfect as we took advantage of having a deep freezer. But still, it was/is a very helpful tool. 

Here are some dishes that work particularly well in the freezer. I’ve included the most recent recipe that I prepared and froze as well. It was very good! Thanks to Diana Shafer in Collierville, TN for sharing! It has already gone to a couple of octogenarians in their home in Tennessee and  to a visiting preacher-student family around our table.

These work well: 

Any kind of soup

Chili

Lasagne

Poppy seed chicken casseroles

Chicken, broccoli and rice casseroles

Most pasta dishes (especially if they are creamy)

Ground beef and vegetable casseroles

Dumpling dishes

Cobblers of any kind 

Dump cakes

Enchilada casseroles

Casseroles with crescent roll type crusts/toppings

Homemade Bread (Wrap well in a couple of layers of heavy duty foil or plastic wrap.)

(If a casserole calls for a cracker or potato chip or corn chip topping, add this after you remove it from the freezer.) 

                                                                                  Creamy Chicken

Ingredients:

4-8 chicken breasts or 1 chicken

1 pt. sour cream

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 8 oz. package Pepperidge Farm dressing mix (may use more)… (Also, I think I used a store brand and it was yum.)

1/4 c.milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

Cook chicken (boil or cook in microwave). Cool. Remove skin and cut into bite-size pieces. Line 9×13 dish with chicken. (But you can really use any size dishes. cc) Sprinkle with salt. Combine soups, sour cream and milk. Spread this over chicken.Prepare dressing mix according to directions on package. Margarine may be omitted if you do not like rich dressing. Use broth from chicken or chicken bouillon for liquid required in dressing mix. Spread dressing on top of soup mixture. Cover with foil. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes. May be frozen before baking.  (This is easy and so very good!)

 

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Mama’s K.I.S.S. Number 6 – Clean for Guests

Posted on July 25, 2011
One of the most requested topics this year on my speaking circuit has been a lesson in which I list a hundred ideas for training our kids to be servants. Service oriented kids grow up to be productive adult servants in the kingdom and it’s those people to whom the Lord will say, “Come ye blessed of my Father,” according to Matthew 25. So it matters if I’m making a real effort, as a mom, to put the heart of a servant in my child. For this reason, I’ve decided to devote a post, every now and then, to a service suggestion—a simple idea for moms to make their homes busy service centers for young hearts and hands. I’d love to hear from those of you who try them. So here goes:

Clean for Guests

If you’ve been reading these suggestions, you have noticed that most, so far, have been written assuming that you are all women of hospitality. I’ve cited scriptures in which hospitality is commanded and I have discussed some of the rich rewards of hospitality. This suggestion is also facilitated by hospitality (You can’t do this one if your inhospitable.) and it facilitates hospitality. (Start on this early and serving people from your home will get easier as the kids grow up.)
Every single time that you know you are going to be having company, enlist the help of your children in cleaning. This is an excellent time to teach them that, while you may not be able to provide expensive food or fine china, that everybody’s house can be clean. Because of too many people in a small space and the ages of those people, your house may, of necessity, NOT be straight.  This is an excellent time to teach your kids the difference between a “messed-up” house and a dirty house. There is a big difference. Even when there’s a puzzle in the floor that the baby pulled out at the last minute or the cheerios she spilled are scattered, the house can still be clean. This is also an excellent time to teach your children that clean does not always mean meticulously spotless and ready for the Better Living photo-op. It means that it smells good, that floors have been recently vacuumed and furniture recently dusted. It means that toilets are all flushed and clean and sinks are relatively free of hair and toothpaste goo. It means little people have just done their best with their assignments.
Two things are really important to remember when you are cleaning for the glory of God. One is that you remember to tell your kids why. Tell them that you, as a family, are doing this because you are trying to help someone go to heaven. Make them aware that it is benevolence or evangelism. Cite passages like Matthew 25: 31-40 or tell them the story of the great woman in II Kings 4. Secondly, remember NOT to overwhelm your children. Did you know that your saying to a three year old, “Go upstairs and clean” is similar to FEMA coming in after a tornado and saying to you, “Please clean up your neighborhood”?  It’s non-specific, huge and daunting.
Instead of asking your toddler to “clean your room,” it’s better to choose a very small job—a particular shelf straightened, one particular puzzle worked and put away, or the items under the bed put in the drawer or the toy box. Give small jobs and then check every few minutes to be sure they are being done and, when one is done, assign another. When you assign the job, spend a few minutes, if necessary, showing the child just what you mean and how to do it. Soon your toddler will be very proficient in lots of small jobs and one day, when he is about eight years old, you can put them all together and say “Clean your room,” and he will not be discouraged by the job’s size.
“But isn’t it easier just to clean myself?” I can hear you asking. The answer is yes. At first it is far easier to do it yourself and you would much rather have your kids at Grandma’s house every time while you are preparing for and while you are having company. It’s important to remember that the point is not having a clean house. The bigger point is sending out faithful servants of God when they leave your house. You are not raising productivity levels at a plant. You are raising children. Just trust me on this one. You will be a happier old lady if you are willing to sometimes pull the tablecloth out of the vacuum cleaner, throw away a vase or two that are casualties of four-year-old dusters or ignore a few missed spots in the corners of the kitchen floor. And, trust me on this one, too: It will be a rare time when a person with whom you are sharing the bread of life will notice a few crumbs on the floor that were missed by an amateur sweeper. If you can get the “why” (evangelism and/or benevolence) of cleaning into your children, the “how” will eventually follow.
And, while you are at it, put this little maxim into their hearts. My grandmother said this to me on several occasions when we cleaned the house and then the company we expected didn’t show up:
“Time spent cleaning is never wasted. We were just doing what needed to be done whether we were having company or not. It’s always a good thing to have a clean house!”
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