Stress-Free Holiday Hosting: Make Room for Grace This Season

Hey.

Hey beautiful friends.

Welcome back to Faith Filled Woman.

This is your host, Kristen.

Today we are digging into hosting and hospitality, especially around the holidays, and how while it could be stressful, we can make things easier on ourselves.

We can remember what's behind the spirit of hospitality and hosting in the invitation instead of getting so caught up in the pomp and circumstance or the layer.

So we're going to talk about the simplicity and what's behind just sharing a meal or sharing time together with people that we care about or loved ones, or just inviting someone in that maybe doesn't have other people to share that meal or that special time of year with.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Woman, a podcast designed for Christian women eager to deepen their faith and shine God's light in every aspect of their lives.

Each week we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories and biblical wisdom to equip you with the tools you need to navigate life's challenges and grow deeper in your faith.

From finding calm in the chaos, forming deep Christian friendships, to everyday ways to connect with God, we'll cover it all.

Hi, I'm your host Kristen.

I'm an encourager, a faith led entrepreneur, a mom and a wife.

Let's be encouraged in our everyday lives as we let our faith guide us, fuel us and fill us with God's incredible peace, wisdom and joy in our lives.

Before we dive into some of the things I want to share with you today, I do want to just take a moment and honor all of us that maybe find this time of year difficult.

Maybe we've lost a loved one, a spouse or a parent or a child.

Maybe we have difficult or strained relationships with people that once more important to and for anyone going through that or that they go through it every year, I just want to say I see you and I'm sending you love and peace.

And I hope that you can still find joy or at least some enjoyable moments throughout the holiday season and hopefully you can start to make new memories and still cherish the people that you've lost or cherish the people that are not a big part of your life or part of your life at this point.

So just know sending you all the love.

And now I want to share with you a couple things about hosting and hospitality during the holidays.

I really see this time of year as an opportunity for us to grow together, to gather together to show each other some grace and love.

And it's really an opportunity for us to show people who Jesus is by how we interact with other people.

And the first excerpt I Want to share with you is from the book Taste and Discovering God Among Butchers, Bakers and Fresh Food Makers by Margaret Feinberg.

And she says this God is waiting around every table, in every pantry, in every backyard garden.

You just need some fresh ingredients, some time and a friend or two.

No matter where we find ourselves, mealtimes can become sacred spaces of supernatural satisfaction.

When we invite God in, He satiates our hunger to know and to be known, to understand and to be understood, to love and to be loved.

In community, God touches our physical appetites and spiritual affections.

She goes on to say, whenever we gather to eat, whether in a tricked out kitchen or seated in a borrowed chair with food atop our laps, God is there because all food ultimately comes from Him.

Yes, God waits in Galilee, but the shores of all our lives are strewn with displays of God's miraculous power.

As we break bread, we find the satisfaction of our deepest hungers in the community our souls crave.

As we share our lives, we taste and see God's fruitfulness.

And when we're tempted to lose heart, and we all will be, we find courage in listening to and participating in the stories of God's rescuing ways.

Every table is a doorway, an entrance into a holy and sacred communion with God and those around us.

And I'll just share this last thing that she says.

In the midst of a busy life, we can all create a space to taste and see God's goodness.

This begins by recognizing food as a gift from God instead of, as of a, instead of a commodity.

Every meal time is an opportunity to be on the lookout for Christ to reveal himself in surprising ways.

We can all pause in order to pay attention to the One who has provided the food before us.

And I think that that's just beautiful.

And she it's a good reminder that when there is food, when there's togetherness, it is an opportunity, as I said, to show up in the spirit, you know, in a Christ like spirit.

And so this year, right, we just had a political election.

There's a lot of people, you know, still kind of reeling, I guess you can say, from the election.

You know, some people obviously got the candidate that they wanted in and some people didn't.

But we've got to be willing to put down our differences, whether those are political differences, our differences about different rights, about societal issues.

We have to be willing to set those down so we can show up and be Christ like, so that we can show up and offer other people that olive branch, that we can offer them love and kindness and Grace.

And we cannot do that if we show up as righteous, angry people in any way, because we have to be willing to come together and not let division or divisiveness split us apart.

And I want to share something else with you.

It's by Dustin Willis and Brandon Laments in the book the Simplest Way to Change the World.

And they're really just talking again about why and what it means and how important it is for us to host people or to go in, be part of other people's lives, right?

It may not be that you always can have people where you live.

You can meet them out for coffee, you can stop by and drop something off, but we need to do life with other people.

And God calls all of us to do that, right?

You know, to show hospitality to other people, to welcome people in, to share what we have with people.

So he says.

I've been.

I've been.

I have been amazed by how the simple act of rolling my grill to my front yard, the backyard and grilling burgers has effectively allowed me to meet.

Meet neighbors, hear their stories, share our lives and point to truth.

I've never printed flyers or sent out mailers.

I simply heated the charcoal and watched people show up.

One of the most ordinary things we do every day is eat a meal at our homes.

We do this small act with intentionality and usually with other people.

And we simply watch the Holy Spirit bring about the significance.

Too many of us mistakenly think that in order for something to be significant, it has to be big, different, drastic or extraordinary.

It has to be something that doesn't happen on a Thursday, because Thursday is just Thursday.

Nothing could be meaningful about an ordinary day in our ordinary life.

Those deeply held beliefs, however, quickly fall apart when viewed through the lens of God's kingdom.

And I think we have to keep reminding ourselves, especially at this time of year when we are going to have gatherings.

We're going to be gathering together, you know, many of us for Thanksgiving or Christmas meals or somewhere in between.

So it is an important time to remember that.

The it is wonderful to have a beautiful or elaborate meal or gathering.

But if our charcuterie doesn't look perfect, if our table or one of our food items gets a little over crisped, if things aren't ready all at the same time, it is okay.

Because just like the story of Mary and Martha, Mary was anointing Jesus's feet with a very expensive perfume.

Martha was busy getting the meal ready.

She was busy attending to eating people, which is an important thing.

But when she was a little Bit.

I think this is me paraphrasing frustrated with Mary because she wasn't helping.

She was.

She was.

And she wasn't helping with the preparation of the meal.

But Jesus tried to explain to Martha this.

You have to kind of pause that, right?

Like, in other words, what Mary was doing for Jesus, that she was rubbing his feet with this very expensive.

Sorry, perfume and that.

And that she was participating, you know, hearing and listening to what he was saying.

It was more important.

And so sometimes we have to remember if we're the one doing all the food, if we're the one doing all the preparation, that is good.

But we need to make sure we don't get so caught up in those details, we don't get so caught up in the meal and the making things perfect that we miss an opportunity to be present with people.

And so that's a reminder for all of us.

We can do things ahead of time.

We can ask people to bring things.

We can know that it doesn't have to be perfect, because what is perfect is us being present in that moment and allowing the Holy Spirit to be part of that experience.

But when we're too busy or we get frazzled or we take on too much, we can't see that or be fully present.

So I just want to remind us all, as we go into the season, do things to make your life easier.

Take shortcuts, order pizza one night, you know, like, have leftovers.

Don't plan so many things that are so overwhelming.

You know, slow down, do something a little simpler.

There's no.

Nothing has to be a certain way.

We can always change the way we did things in the past or tweak it or ask for more help than we've asked for in the past.

Because what we don't want to do is we don't want to go into the season or come out of the season and feel frustrated and angry or resentful towards the people around us because we didn't communicate.

We needed them to do more, to help or to participate if they're able.

So that's just a reminder.

All of us, as we go into this season, let's set our sights on grace and love and kindness and on Jesus and his example, and not on the rush and the busy imperfectionism, because that is not what the season's supposed to be about.

Right?

Let's set our hearts on giving thanks and being grateful for what we do have in our lives or how God is walking with us through whatever hard thing we're going through.

And let's remember what Christmas is all about, right?

The birth of Jesus and what that means to the world that he was born in the journey, his life and death that's about to happen after, you know, he's born and then, and then his, his life.

So I just wanted to come on and give you that encouragement.

But before we wrap up, I'm going to share a couple other quick quotes and ideas with you.

Okay?

I want to share these words with you by Shana Nyquist.

Nyquist, excuse me, from her book Bread and Wine.

And she's, I think she's talking about this time of year or, you know, just doing too many things.

And so I think it's another lovely reminder.

She says, my prayer is that we'll find ourselves drawn closer and closer to the heart of the story, the beautiful beating heart of it all, that the chaos around us and within us will recede and the most important thing will be clear and lovely at every turn.

I pray that we'll understand the transforming power that lies in saying no, because it's an act of faith, a tangible demonstration of the belief that you are so much more than what you do.

I pray that we'll live with intention, hope and love in this wild season and in every season, and that the God who loves us will bring new life to our worn out hearts this year and every year, that we'll live truly and deeply in the present instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for perfect friends that gave me goosebumps because too many of us are trying.

We're striving, we're chasing accomplishment and accolades and doing more, being more productive instead of finding the grace and the rest and being present.

And so my hope for us this holiday season is that we can slow down a little bit more.

We can actually cherish the traditions and the birth of Jesus.

We can cherish each other.

We can cherish the beauty of the season and that we will give ourselves and others grace and be more patient with each other and just keep coming back to center, keep coming back and asking the Holy Spirit, just give me the patience, give me the fortitude to remember, to be kind, to show up in love, to give people the benefit of the doubt.

And I think if we do that, we will have a much more beautiful Christmas and holiday season that centers around Christ and what Christmas is all about.

So I hope you have a great week until next time.

And I did want to let you know that if you haven't already grabbed it, head on over to KristinFitch.com and grab my Joyful Living devotional that is a perfect devotional journal or workbook that you can download and do over the, you know, this time of year.

The kind of as we're wrapping the year up and we're going into the holidays, you just go to KristinFitch.com and then go to my freebies page and you can download the Joyful Living Devotional today.

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