Entertaining Angels: Red Letter Words, The Hip Hostess, The Reluctant Entertainer GIVEAWAY!
I’m SO excited for this giveaway today! It’s amazing, and it’s all about hospitality, and my friends Dee and Debbie are joining me.
We live in a culture where most of us don’t have strangers coming to our door asking for food. During the Depression, however, my grandparents did have this happen. I remember my Grandma sharing stories with me of how she’d feed them, give them coffee, share God with them, and send them on their way. I will never forget how later in life when I’d read this verse (Heb. 13:2), I’d think of Grandma, but it would also get me thinking not only about my life, but our culture today.
Years ago when I started blogging about entertaining and hospitality, I asked readers what kind of people they entertained the most in their homes.
The popular answers were:
1. FAMILY
2. PEOPLE FROM CHURCH
It actually made me sad that we don’t reach out more to neighbors, people of different faiths, backgrounds, and cultures.
Why do we stuff hospitality into a box, making it so pretty, perfectly safe, and always predictable? (Many of us rarely even open up our homes!)
So today Dee from Red Letter Words and Debbie from The Hip Hostess and I are giving away 3 items to ONE LUCKY WINNER.
We want to challenge you to think about hospitality with FRESH EYES.
We want to encourage you to do something different, radical, and courageous when it comes to opening your home for a meal.
It’s up to you to decide what it will be.
The cool GIVEAWAY:
Red Letter Words
Hebrews 13:2 Entertaining Angels gallery wrapped canvas
12×12
Here’s how Dee’s work is mounted. Down-right classy!
(Read the “Design Story” behind “Entertaining Angels,” HERE. A must-read!)
The Hip Hostess
4 BRAND NEW spring prints (below) – the winner gets to CHOOSE ONE!
This is fun! Do you know any of these bloggers wearing HH Aprons?
BTW, the NEW Annual “Hurry Spring” Sale starts today!
Use this Promo Code: SPRING25 for 25% OFF thru Mar 31
The Reluctant Entertainer
ONE signed copy (Yes, I’m wearing a Hip Hostess apron in my book! The Nester took this picture, but I know she won’t mind me using it here.)
COMMENT TO WIN all 3 amazing gifts that will help you with hospitality!
How do you feel about hospitality and does Hebrews 13:2 challenge you?
Do you always have the same people over for dinner or have you branched out?
– Facebook this post or TWEET about it @SandyCoughlinRE and @TheHipHostess and @RedLetterArt and get extra entries.
– Did you know Reluctant Entertainer has its own Facebook page?
– If you’ve never been a follower of RE, sign up today. This means my updates will come straight to your email!
– Let me know for extra chances to win. Contest ends Thurs. night midnight 3/17. Winner announced on FRI. 3/18! (USA, only!)
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
Beautiful giveaway! I love it!
I think it can almost be easier to show hospitality to strangers than to invite over people who are always around us! It’s easier to meet a need right in front of you, than to go out of the way to invite over people around us all the time.
Hey There! I just stumbled across your blog and I am loving it! I am a new wife, and my husband and I live in a one bedroom dorm on a camp in the hills of North Carolina. My husband’s parents are letting us live here rent-free (They own the camp) until we move to seminary in the fall. All I can say is, we LOVE our little place. I have tried to make it the prettiest and coziest I can, and it definitely feels like home. Because my husband works nights as a waiter, sometimes its hard to find time to have people over “formally.” Some of my favorite times of entertaining, though, are when people randomly stop by and stay for a while. It forces me to put aside my perfectionism and just love on people. I also have a group of young ladies that comes to my home every week and we eat snacks, talk about life, and encourage one another. Hebrews 13:2 puts it all into perspective. Entertaining is not about OUR image and looking like we have it all together. No one does. Its about putting others first and loving on them. Jake and I look forward to when we have a family and can introduce our kids to the joy of serving and loving people!
I absolutely adore this verse and actually wrote it in the walls of the dining room of our home as it was being constructed, as it was a spirit we desired to have permeate and welcome all who would come in, truly a beautiful aspect of God’s heart! I love hospitality, both the giving and receiving of it. It speaks value to the one being invited, the preparation of a place and an experience designed specifically for that very treasured heart.
This year I am the very privileged and honored recipient in a plan established by God through the hearts of His children to reach out with hospitality for the establishment of family and community with a specific purpose of providing nurturing, healing, and shared joy. It has just begun and already my heart has been blessed beyond measure to be invited into the homes of “strangers” (for now : )) who are themselves angels (most definitely!) Hospitality has as its root the essence of Tender Loving Care that brings LIFE!
Thank you for all you do to promote this kind of love and care… it’s a joy experiencing the entertaining of angels and being blessed by the messages from God they deliver to hearts open to receiving them!
I like to have people over, my parents were both really good at that. Because we don’t live near any of our family we do branch out and have friends over. We often ask people over that we know are new to the church to help them get to know people. I pray that without knowing it, one of these times we do entertain angels. I just signed up to receive your newsletter.
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It is a challenge for me. We rarely branch out and when we do its never to strangers. It is an area where I definitely need help!
What a wonderful giveaway and a great topic! The verse is a beautiful reminder for hospitality and I love this. We have often had people in our home that were strangers but soon became friends! But, we do need to do this more often…more intentional about it. You are right, it is easy to just have people over that we are comfortable with…thanks for the challenge and the chance to win some beautiful hospitality gifts!
I shared this on FB!!
I’ll admit we haven’t ventured out to our neighbors, mainly because we rarely see them. Oh, we’re neighborly and talk when we do see them, but getting together is tricky and my hubby is not one for small talk (he’ll even admit it). We do find other ways to “socialize” with those who aren’t from church or aren’t family. Often we’ll invite new people at church over.
I need to branch out more with my hosting. Thank you for the wonderful reminder!
I like to do hospitality although I don’t always do it as often as I would like. Since most of my extended family does not live nearby we don’t often have the chance to host them. We have had a number of people from church over and also missionaries some of which we met when they arrived at our house. We also had a young lady live in our house for around a month that we barley knew.
I love being hospitable to others! I must, though, learn how to best do it, so that I don’t stress about it ahead of time, or spend too much time in prep and neglect my family!
It is important to us to open our house to others and to be willing to share what we’ve been blessed with with other. I would love to invite neighbors and others over more often, but I do think we end up hosting the same people over and over because we have a wide circle of friends and it seems like even if we host people in our home once a week (which doesn’t feel realistic all weeks), it can be months between visits with different friends. I tend to opt to invite friends over that we haven’t seen for awhile rather than someone that we don’t know.
I love Hebrews 3:12. I think I need that in my house as a constant reminder to stretch myself when entertaining. We go through seasons of entertaining quite a bit and then do so less and then pick back up again. Opening up our home is always a blessing to us!
gulp. I have been thinking about that verse as we have finally met the neighbors that moved in a few houses down. Their lives are so different than ours and so our their children(After just a few minutes of having their kids play in our yard, we felt like we’d been hit by a tornado and were exhausted. :o) ) yet my husband and I have been talking about how to extend the love we know in Christ with them. Hospitality is definitely a way we can get to know them. And here you are reminding me and reinforcing the idea. :o) We haven’t been in this area very long so every one we have over is a first time guest but, honestly, some are definitely easier to entertain. We are branching out to college students now too-what a challenge-they eat so much! :o) This is an all new area of life-it feels much different than enjoying our little cubby-hole lifestyle yet God is blessing it as He stretches us. Thanks for the fun contest and encouraging post!!
I usually have friends in my home now, but in college my door seemed to always be open. Roommates’ friends and aquantainces who I didn’t know found a safe and peaceful place in our home. Hebrews 13 challenges me to have that same open door policy today and reminds me that I need to plan a neighborhood get together…
I love this topic! My mother-in-law has lived Hebrews 13:2 every day of her life and is now unable to host as much as she used to. Because our city has a world-class medical school and research facility, there are many
people from foreign countries that have nowhere to go for the holidays. It is now our pleasure to continue the
tradition my mother-in-law perfected. Our Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter gatherings have had over 50
countries represented over the past several years and it is always an interesting mix of cultures, religions and
personalities. One thing is a certainty at these gatherings: there is NEVER a dull moment!
I posted about this giveaway on facebook
Hospitality is something that my mother instilled in me from the beginning because of her example. While I think one should be cautious when inviting strangers into their home, I believe we should reach out to those who are needy rather than opening our home continuously to people we would prefer to socialize with.
I admit that I have a tendency to stick with family and close friends.
We usually just have family and our friends- I love that verse- it is so inspiring.
Thanks for the chance to win.
Thanks for the challenge.. and am excited with some of the ideas and tips you give on making hosting a simple task… Thanks so much!
Tweeted! @lisaoates
My hubby has always been very hospitable and caring. He always wants to host get togethers or help others — he once offered our car to some people so they could get to a medical clinic 10 hours away for their suffering daughter! I’ve struggled with it simply because I feel the need to have everything looking spic n span and perfect before someone can arrive. It is awful! I really love this giveaway because it will be a constant reminder to me to branch out and be the “Martha” instead of the “Mary.”
Thank you!
Thanks for the encouragement. My husband’s 2nd shift work schedule makes it difficult for us to have people over on a regular basis, but we’re setting up times to have company whenever we can. I’ve been surprised how easy it can be, and I get less stressed out about company the more we practice :)