When I opened up You Hospitality Personality, I of course thought I would find hosting themes, hosting tips, and a plethora of anecdotes about how to be welcoming. These are certainly covered and quite important parts of hospitality, however what resonated with me most throughout the book, was the focus on the connections that occur during an event of any kind. Morgan focuses on placing an emphasis and that and simplicity, and walks us through using own specific gifts and talents in our personalities to do so.
She talks about how her thoughts shifted from her house to the people – focusing rather on how to make it serve better rather than simply have it look better. I love how she says, ” you don’t need to make room for fanciness, but it’s always a good idea to make room for comfort and coziness.”
People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.
– Maya Angelou
“When we open our homes, we have the opportunity to welcome others into our hearts and ushers in grace to theirs. But this can be missed if we put up the facade of perfection through our production. When we are more focused on the event, the details, the trying to make things perfect, we can unintentionally create a barrier between us and our guests, instead of an invitation to share ourselves in a way that leads to true fellowship and rejuvenation.”
You might recall her last book, Take Back Your Time, and when you take the lessons from there (read full review here) and align them with your hospitality personality and the tools within these pages, you are set to spend your time connecting with people on a more meaningful (and less stress free) level. Food has its place of course, but our hospitality emphasis should be on the people and creating the time and space for those connections. So use your talents! And model an experience that is laced with grace.You can take the personality quiz as well here. Any guesses what I am? 😉 There is also a great diagram on pg 34, laying out how extroverts, ambiverts, and introverts fit into this mix.
I am a sucker for a pineapple, and love what it represents when it comes to hospitality – abundance & generosity – and I love how Morgan talks about seeking opportunities to show love and hospitality in every situation life throws at you. We can choose to use our hospitality to show the love of Christ in us to others.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:2
While we can certainly consider the condition of our homes, it is far more important to consider the condition of our hearts. Morgan quotes Shasta Nelson stating “Because at the end of the day, for us, we want to feel loved, and we can only feel loved if we feel known, and we can only feel known if we actually share ourselves.”
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