faith

Something Other Than God [Lent, Day 6]

March 6, 2017 by Edie Wadsworth 4 Comments

Lent Day 6: Something Other Than God

Texts: Psalm 104:1-9, Gen. 7:11-8:12, Mark 3:20-35

[This is part of my Lenten devotional study of the prodigal son. Click Here to Download ]

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“And he took a journey into the far country.”

I was never much of a rebellious child, but when I was ten years old, I ran away from home. I meant business, too. I can’t even remember what severe injustice spurred my quest for a better life, but I do remember running across the street to Water’s Market to stock up on bubble gum. A stringy haired runaway wearing a ball cap, blowing giant bubbles, and repeatedly pounding the pocket of her softball glove was surely the poster child for a serious rebel.

I think I was gone an hour and a half. I guess I got hungry. Or thirsty. Or ran low on Super Bubble and didn’t want to miss softball practice.

What it was that drove the prodigal away from the love of his family, we aren’t really told. He asked for his part and he left. Maybe he even had some legitimate complaints. Maybe he felt like his father favored the oldest son. Maybe he always had to do the worst chores or always got the short end of the stick. Maybe he always got blamed when something got broken or maybe he was 16 and still didn’t have a cell phone. Maybe he felt like his family just didn’t get him or appreciate all the unique gifts he had to offer.

Whatever it was, it was enough to justify his actions in his own mind.

What was at the heart of the prodigal’s sin? Probably the same thing that’s at the heart of ours.

Unbelief.

We are unbelievers.

We are sure our Father has been unfair to us. We wonder if He actually sees all the work we do and the turmoil and heartache and injustice we go through on a daily basis. We feel unseen or maybe under appreciated. Maybe our complaints are justified, too. Maybe our neighbor Tom always gets the best breaks, the perfect job, the obedient children, the rock star spouse.

We convince ourselves that we were born at the wrong time, given the wrong set of gifts, the wrong bank account, the wrong house, the wrong parents. If only we had fill-in-the-blank, our lives would be well. Isn’t that what we secretly murmur in the truest parts of our souls?

Except those murmurings are all lies—lies straight from our enemy who will do ANYTHING to separate us from our Father’s love.

God is our loving Father, and He is working everything for our good. He sees us. He knows us and hears the groanings that we can’t even utter. He has placed us right here, in this family, with these difficult people, in this dinky little town, driving this worn out car, for a very specific reason—for such a time as this.

In the Old Testament lesson, Noah and his family probably struggled with the same unbelief when the lights went out at night. Build an ark? For a worldwide flood? With these pathetic supplies? What about John, why doesn’t he have to help? Why us? Why now?

But Noah didn’t run away from his calling. He believed God, and he stayed and he built a boat, day after back-breaking day, without the slightest drop of rain to bolster his belief.

Until one day when God finally honored His word and the heavens unleashed their power.

Noah and his family were spared from the terror of the greatest destruction the world had ever known, separated from the wickedness of the world by water, kept safe inside the boat that had been the laughing stock of the town for decades. God can be trusted to get us home safely, if we will ask for the gift of faith, if we will learn to trust His ways and His promises, if we will stay inside the Ark of the church, though it be the laughing stock of the town still.

When we run to the far country, we are usually running away from our calling, from the very people God has given us to serve and love. We run because we don’t believe His promises, because we doubt that He loves us.

May our doubt and unbelief and stubborn sinful rebellion be washed clean by His saving flood and may we stay near to Him, the source of all light and life, and the giver of every good and perfect gift.

Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief.

Where your power lies…

December 5, 2016 by Edie Wadsworth 9 Comments

I did everything I was supposed to do.

Three years. Three complete rewrites. Countless sleepless nights. Many editors.

Finally, one hard truth given to the world as a gift—the spoils of my adventures into the far and dark country of my past.

I wrote my story, I did the hard work of telling the world about it, I did speaking engagements and videos and blog posts and all of it, and now I was finally done.

I felt so relieved when the last t was crossed—relieved to not talk about it, at least for a while.

Writing my truth and sharing it it had at times reduced me to a little girl still waiting for her Daddy. I began to feel bare and alone and vulnerable. I cried most of the month of September.

I was thankful and relieved and even healed by the telling but I also wanted to stop reliving it all in my head every time someone would ask about the book.

Two days after I fulfilled my last scheduled obligation, I was waiting for my lunch at a cafe and a friend told me she’d read my story.

My heart sank. I didn’t want to talk about it. I wanted to the be the person who taught about essential oils or the person who made really good beef stew or the person who blogged about decorating. Anything but the girl who was fatherless and unspoken for, I wanted to be anybody but her.

A few days later, I got this email that went something like this,

Your book wrecked me. I read it one day and couldn’t stop crying. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel alone. I have hope that God can heal me too, for the first time ever. The bitterness I’ve carried is melting away. I could feel it leaving as I read. Please, please never regret writing your story. It has been a lifeline for me. Please pray for me, that God will work the same miracle in my heart.

That email was like a punch in the gut to me.

I had fallen so easily back into victim mentality. Hadn’t I known completely that God would use my story to minister healing to others? Hadn’t I believed Him for that? But here I was, wallowing in weird self-pity. Poor me, everyone knows my story now, wonder what they think….All those dumb thoughts that can so often keep me too focused on my own self.

You probably have a catalogue of them in your head too. And they keep you from really sharing your whole self with us.

I publicly want to say thank you to everyone who has written me about this book because your words have kept me honest and reminded me why we all need each other. You’ve kept me open and vulnerable and willing to keep sharing.

I’m imagining you struggle too, with being okay with who you really are. Maybe you’re ashamed of your story or fearful of sharing it because you so want to fit in or be liked or be anonymous.

I don’t think that’s what you really want though.

But your Father made you to be alive and free SO THAT you can spend yourself for the sake of others.

You want to tap into real power in your life? The power to really help another human being? It’s in your story. Your struggle, your pain, your weakness.

Your story doesn’t steal your power, it is your power.

It’s the reason you’re here.

And none of it is by accident, it is by design—the design of a God who loves you and is for you and wants to see you live in full passion and freedom. But you can’t do that when you deny so much of who you really are.

Share yourself with us. Be generous with us. Trust us.

Stop hiding behind your job and your status and your wealth. Or stop hiding behind your doubt and insecurity and victim mentality.

You are not a victim. You are an amazing child of God with incredible resilience and a Father who wants to use every piece of your life as a sacrificial offering to others.

Your struggle and your hurt and your past are where the magic and the power lie.

Don’t hold back the gift of your life, of the real you, of the you that has known untold heartache.

Share her with us. We need her so desperately. She makes us know we’re not alone. She gives us courage and hope. She makes us brave. She makes us feel safe.

Because a woman fully alive bearing witness to the grace and mercy of the God in her life is a power this world seldom sees and it is a power that serves and heals and blesses and shares and comforts and leads and surrenders.

Bring us your gift. It’s what you were made for.

************

All the Pretty Things is available for purchase here. It would make a great gift for someone with a painful past.

3 Ways Blogging Changed Me & Help for Starting Your Own

October 26, 2016 by Edie Wadsworth 7 Comments

Let me paint the picture.

It’s 2007 and I’ve just locked myself in my bathroom. I’m curled up against the cold tile floor crying my eyes out. I’ve just given up my job as a family practice physician to homeschool my girls and I have never felt more lost or frustrated or alone. My daughter is having her third temper tantrum of the day and I am convinced that I am unqualified to even parent her at this point, much less convince her she needs to learn math facts.

I am missing my job, missing doing something that I’m good at, missing the company of coworkers, missing the satisfaction of taking care of patients. And heap on top of that the guilt that comes from wishing I was anywhere else but here. I call my sister and tell her that this was the worst mistake of my life.

I had never not worked. I had no idea how to stay home and be productive and content. I felt alone and isolated and restless, with no idea how to be home with kids all day and absolutely no idea how to be the person they needed me to be.

Finally, I picked myself off the floor, wiped away the tears and went back to the school room to give it another try. I knew I needed help so I started looking online for resources that could help a struggling mama out.

Enter the day I found blogs. Denise first introduced me to the online world but it was my own pain that drove me to Google looking for answers. It was Myquillin I found first, who also happened to be homeschooling at the time. I stayed up until 3am one night reading all her archives. Every last post. I was so very inspired. She was staying home and finding ways to love it and thrive. I wanted to love it and thrive too and her words gave me hope and encouragement.

I felt so much less alone. My heart raced with excitement.

A few days later, I opened up my computer and stumbled my way through the technical challenges and started a little baby blog called Lifeingrace. I had no idea then how it would change my world forever.

Fast forward nine years and almost every AMAZING thing that is part of my life now, including YOU, came to me because of blogging. This journey has led me down a road I couldn’t even have envisioned when I first started. It has given me so much but these 3 things stand out the most:

It has helped me find my voice

I’ve always been a writer, always had a message burning in my heart. I just needed a place to practice it. And finding my writing voice took time, for sure, but blogging gave me the benefit of feedback. It’s one thing to write, it’s another thing altogether to write for the benefit of someone else. This online writing gig eventually led me to a book deal and 3 years after that, led me to finally release my first book.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you have a message burning in your heart, don’t hide it. Instead, find a way to share it. Maybe blogging would be a good first step for you too.

It has given me a sisterhood

When you are home with kids all day, you can begin to feel so isolated. Blogging gave me the community I was craving. After years of doing this, I can say that so many of my dearest friends are people I met from blogging. It’s been the greatest gift that I never knew I needed.

It has given me a full time income while working from home

I loved blogging from the beginning but to keep doing it and to justify the time I was spending on it, I needed it to help support my family. I started with a few ads and some sponsored posts but I hated the way the ads looked on my site so my dream was to decrease the amount of ads and continue to find new ways to share my message while helping my family. Online courses and resources have given me the tools to not only share my heart’s message but to make a sustainable living while doing it. Then, two years ago, I fell into a dream come true when I found essential oils. I get to help people find natural wellness while helping pay for college and high school tuition, supporting a family in need, saving for a wedding or two, and many other things that my income has supported. My income has more than tripled in the past year and I know it’s because I made it a priority to keep learning and growing and serving the people in my life.

That’s why I want to share this resource with you, a toolkit I wish I’d had when I started.

If you have a message that’s burning in your heart and you want the fast track to getting it out to the world, you will LOVE this resource.

It’s called the Genius Blogger’s Toolkit.

I became interested in the toolkit when I saw that some of the courses/resources there were ones I had already taken that gave me the confidence and skills to keep sharing my message. (Nester has an Instagram course, Ruth has an CRAZY GOOD productivity course and several book writing resources ) I’ve spent the last two years taking a plethora of online classes to help me grow my self and my business.

I paid as much for EACH of those courses as this bundle costs in total!?!?

And not to overwhelm you, but this bundle contains more than $5,000 in training with everything from how to start a blog, how to turn your idea into a book, to how to do social media with integrity. It’s almost too good to be true.

If you’ve been wanting to try your hand at sharing your message online, this resource is too good to pass up.

And since I decided not to relaunch my own course until January, (It’s called Overflow and is a 20 video course on rediscovering your joy, passion, and purpose. This will be the self-paced version with no live FB calls)

I’m throwing it in FOR FREE as a bonus to anyone who purchases the Genius Bundle through my affiliate link.

In other words, you could almost go back to college with all that’s offered in this toolkit. Minus the 8 am classes and the cramming for tests the night before!!

If you’re interested click the link below to learn more!! The cart for the class is open until November 1st.

(And if you decide to take advantage of all this training, once you purchase it, come back here and click the link below so I can get you added to the self-paced version of Overflow. If you don’t do this step, I won’t have any other way of knowing to add you to my course!

Click here once you’ve purchased the bundle!

Some of what’s included in the bundle! ($97 for over $5,000 in training!)(This list will blow your mind!)

Professional Blogging

- Blogging Roadmap: The Simple Method for Creating A Profitable Blog by WellnessMama ($97.00)
- Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook Master Package by Abby Lawson ($75.00)
- Everything But the Posts: Tips, Advice, and Templates From a Blogger Who Has Been in Your Shoes by Becca Ludlum ($7.99)
- Launch Your Dream Blogger’s Bundle by Natalie Joy ($81.00)
- The Blogger’s Guide to Online Marketing

from ProBlogger ($49.99)

The Foundation Series by Kirsten Oliphant ($49.00)
The Knowtbook: In-Depth Notes for Online Business by Amy Lynn Andrews ($24.00)
The Must-Have Guide to Blogging by Kayla Aimee ($17.00)

Time Management & Productivity

Asana for Bloggers by Matthew Giovanisci ($25.00)
Blog Buddies Planner Pages & Calling Cards by Mollie Johanson ($8.00)
Creating and Maintaining an Editorial Calendar by Angie Holden ($19.99)
Productivity Guide for Bloggers by Ruth Soukup ($97.00)
The Balanced Blog Planner by Amy Blevins ($49.00)
The Ultimate Freelancer Tax Guide by Caitlin Pyle ($9.99)
The Ultimate Unoffical Dropbox Guide by Jason Glaspey ($29.00)
Time Management Mama by Beth Anne Schwamberger ($5.99)

Social Media

Facebook Live Bully by Dave Anderson ($37.00)
FB Ads for Beginners by Beth Anne Schwamberger ($75.00)
Growing With Groups by Val Geisler ($97.00)
InstaValuable :: Grow Your Instagram Basic Course by Myquillyn Smith ($97.00)
Pinaffiliate Masterclass by Adeline Ganley ($97.00)
Pinterest Traffic Secrets by Bob Lotich ($149.00)
Snapchat for Influencers by Amy Bellgardt & Jessi Sanfilippo ($9.99)
Social Media Marketing Workbook and Planner: How to Master Engagement in 15 Minutes a Day by Dwainia Grey ($27.00)
Stop Guessing: Your Step by Step Guide to Creating a Social Media Strategy by Jenn Herman ($9.99)
Strategies Worth Sharing eBook & Workbook by Brittany Ann ($30.00)
Triple Your Twitter by Helene Sula ($127.00)

Product Creation

Blog To Book: A Guide to Building Your Blog Business Through eBooks and Paperbacks by P.R. Newton ($7.99)
Building a Business: How to Dream, Plan, Make, Sell, and Share Your Online Shop by Maggie Whitley & Elise Blaha Cripe ($12.00)
Delight: The Digital Biz Owner’s Guide To Creating A Pro Client + Customer Service Plan by Erika Madden ($11.00)
E-Course Creation 101 by Chantel Klassen ($97.00)
Formatting e-Books for Writers by Susan K. Stewart ($2.99)
From Idea to eBook by Mandi Ehman ($37.00)
Get Them Excited to Buy: Step-by-Step Guide for Converting Just Looking to Just Bought by Kelly Thorne Gore ($27.00)
How to Start Publishing for Kindle by Jeff Goins ($47.00)

Tech Help

Blog Beautiful: 50 Tips + Fixes to Make Your Blog Glow by Marianne Manthey ($24.00)
HTML and CSS Crash Course by Sarah Eggers ($129.00)
Sticky Blogging SEO: Climb to the Top With This 21-Day Course by Kelly Holmes ($99.00)
What the Tech? A Guide to Ease Your Technical Blogging Frustrations by Lesley Clavijo ($75.00)
You Have a Blog, Now What? Tips for Non-Techie Bloggers by Maria Davis ($19.00)

Photography & Images

Eat Pretty Things: Your Guide to Food Photography by Trisha Hughes ($29.00)
Lazy Girl’s Guide to Lightroom: Easy Photo Editing for Bloggers by Beth Bryan ($97.00)
Photoshop Your Biz: Learn Photoshop & Design On Your Own Schedule by Holly McCaig ($79.00)
Systematize Your Branding by Indigo Colton and Kaitlyn Kessler ($49.00)

Blog Growth

17 Strategies I Used to Go from 17K to 350K+ Pageviews in 9 Months by Lena Gott ($25.00)
List Building Jumpstart by Laura Smith ($147.00)
Networking Tips to Take Your Business to the Next Level by Natalie Cutler-Welsh ($19.00)
Primp My Post by Angie Nelson ($17.00)
Rave: Turn Your Online Followers Into Fans by Allison Marshall ($149.00)

Content Creation

Content Cookbook by Prerna Malik ($199.00)
Done-For-You Blog Content Creation Kit by Tanya Peterson ($47.00)
Heart of Your Business Video Training by Adera Angelucci ($47.50)
Podcasters Secret Weapon: Ultimate Podcaster Launch Guide by Luis Congdon ($9.00)
Simple Podcasting by Joe Pardo ($69.99)

Monetizing

Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers: The Fundamentals by Tasha Agruso ($75.00)
Affiliate Marketing Secrets & Strategies by Katie Hornor ($47.00)
BloggerRevolution™ Sponsored Content Master Guide: How to Pitch, Create & Nail Sponsored Content Every Time by Bonnie LaVell ($259.00)
Brands Are Looking For YOU! by Karen Lee ($14.99)
How to Move from Blog to Business by Caz and Craig Makepeace ($67.00)
Launch Your Speaking Ministry by Sheila Wray Gregiore ($79.00)
Monetize45 by Tabitha Philen ($149.00)
PR + Marketing for Bloggers by Kaelah Flynn ($25.00)
The Concise Guide to Blogging for Business Growth by Ling Wong ($27.00)

When Comparison is Paralyzing You

June 6, 2016 by Edie Wadsworth 3 Comments

When I started blogging, I found the Nester in the first two days and I was mesmerized. She was funny and quirky and we shared a common love for our homes and how to make them better. I was convinced I wanted to be a home blogger like her. I documented my house projects and tried to figure out how to be the Nester when I grew up.

Then I found Melanie. And I loved the way she wrote about nothing—like the Seinfeld show of blogging. She was hilarious and so comfortable in her blogging skin, which was (and is) mostly about going to the grocery store and dealing with dogs and meals and life, with some awesome fashion thrown in. Maybe I could be like her.

Then I found faith bloggers. And style bloggers. And food bloggers. I compared myself to all of them, to their writing styles and their photos and their social media presence. I wanted to be everything they were. Then, I wanted to quit. Because it felt too hard and I wasn’t sure where or if I could fit in with my very different background and my very different outlook on life.

After years of trying to figure it all out, I quit trying to be like everybody else and ventured into the scary waters of trying to be myself.

I’m what happens when the Nester and Melanie and Ann and Christy have a Lutheran, cowboy boot wearing, karaoke singing, Southern appalachian love child with an weird enthusiasm for food and natural health and theology and decorating. I’m a quirky mix of all of them and yet nothing like them whatsoever. In other words, I finally learned to be me. And I do me much better than I do them. And when I settled into doing the best version of me, I found my sweet spot.

C.S. Lewis is a dangerous man to read and confirmed my suspicions when he wrote this:

You will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will find it. ~C.S. Lewis

We’re all guilty of it, let’s just be honest. We look around and see people who seem to have it all. We wonder why we struggle in certain areas, why we’ve been given this particular set of circumstances, why we aren’t more gifted or beautiful, or why everyone else seems to be gliding by so effortlessly, with perfect passion and energy and joy. And if we’re not careful, we start to develop bitterness toward the people we’re comparing ourselves to.

Find comfort in this: think of the most wonderful, successful, kind, blessed person you can think of and know that she is comparing herself to someone too—and she’s not measuring up. It’s a pitiful cycle that we can all get caught up in and it steals our joy and contentment.

And none of us are exempt.

Actually, the women we most compare ourselves to—the ones that seem to have it all—are often the ones who struggle most with insecurity and self-doubt.

Lean in, pretty momma, because I have something important to tell you.

You are beautiful. You are enough. You are just who God made you to be, in every way.

And once you let that sink in, it will slowly begin to change your view of yourself and your interaction with others.

Our tendency to compare ourselves to others makes us more self-centered than we ought to be. And once we settle into our own skin—comfortable with who we were made to be—we can finally stop focusing on ourselves and start spending that valuable energy on how we can best serve and love those around us.

The truth is, comparing ourselves to others doesn’t just steal our joy, it robs those around us of the rare gift of a woman who has learned to give her uniqueness to the world.

Lay down the comparison, the self doubt, the insecurity, and start offering your gifts to the world. We need you. And to butcher my favorite song lyric from Bob Dylan, the world ain’t seen nothing like you yet.

***

If you’re struggling with self-doubt, comparison, insecurity, maybe even going through a grown up identity crisis, I think I can help. All those years of struggling to be myself? I took some good notes and learned a few priceless gems along the way. I rediscovered my passion and learned to live with a more purpose and creativity. Most of all, I learned the joy (and the heartache) of offering myself to those who need me most. And I’m still figuring it all out. But I decided to share my cliff notes in a 4 week mentoring/accountability group called O V E R F L O W.

You can find out all about it here. I can’t wait to meet you there.

Wide awake and overflowing

June 3, 2016 by Edie Wadsworth 6 Comments

I remember well the first month at home after I quit my family medicine job. It was awful. I felt lost, alone, untethered, uninspired, undone, un-everything. It was like staring at an empty page with no idea what I should write. I finally bought a book on how to bake bread and something about the hands in the dough and tangible offering of warm bread to hungry people brought me out of the funk.

I’ve been in a similar weird place a dozen times or more in my life. Maybe a life transition or an epiphany or just a long dry spell where nothing even tasted right.

What I discovered every time is that if I would stay open to learning, discovering, loving, serving— I always found my way and usually with the help of a friend or mentor or someone a little farther along in the process.

If we open ourselves up—in the process, we learn to live fully alive in our giftings, free from what has shamed us and caused us to hide, free to finally love and serve the people God has put right in front of us with everything that is in us, free and inspired to be everything we were created to be.

In the past two years, one of things that has helped me so much in the dry, apathetic spells have been mentoring/coaching groups. I’ve learned so much and have found wonderful, supportive relationships in the process.

That’s why I’m so excited about O V E R F L O W—my brand new 4-week mentorship program for the woman who feels stuck or apathetic or overflowing in all the wrong ways. I’ve been there so many times.

We’re all busy, with full lives and we often see things overflow—the laundry, the toilet, the dishes, the anger, the stress. But how do we overflow with the all the right things? How do we overflow with love and joy and compassion and creativity? This session will be a mini boot camp to get us headed in the right direction, with amazingly simple but practical steps, lots of inspiration, and some well worn advice from someone who knows how hard it can be to live wide awake to your life.

This bootcamp will;

ignite a fire in you as to who (and whose) you really are and what you were made to do
help you rediscover the best parts of you that have often been hiding or wounded or covered up by the stresses of life
help you discover practical strategies to develop your gifts & strengths, even in the midst of the busy mom life
wake up to your unique vocation and shake the pesky bad habits that creep in when we dismiss our calling
nurture you toward the purpose and passion and creativity that is uniquely yours
give you a safe place and plenty of encouragement to daydream about the full and abundant life you were made to live

Click here to read about what’s included.

Mwahhhh!

edie

Because the world has enough critics…

May 23, 2016 by Edie Wadsworth 2 Comments

(I gave this talk at my sister’s church on Friday night and I wanted to share some of it with you, too. At the end, there’ll be a way to download the pdf of the talk, in case you’re interested.)

There is a message that burns in my heart. I call it the Jesus way of hospitality. Thinking about it and writing about it has caused a radical shift in the way I think about the people I encounter everyday, especially those who are closest to me.

The reason I’m obsessed with this kind of hospitality is because I’m not naturally very good at it and I see so little of it in our world. We are SO easy to be critical and judgemental and full of gossip about the people in our lives, but not so willing to lay down our lives for them. And since the world has enough critics, I hope this message will light a fire in you like it has in me, to show the world a better way.

The trouble is—I’m just like the next girl. I want to sit and work and live RIGHT inside my comfort zone, with people who are just like me. I want to fit in and be part of the in crowd. I want to sit with the important people, whoever they are, at the head of the table. I’m the disciple who asked Jesus if he could sit on his right or left. I’m usually way more concerned about the Pinterest way of hospitality—the kind that wants to impress people instead of carrying their burdens. I’m guessing that’s your default too. That’s why we need to take a new look at what Jesus had to say about being in this world with other people.

The Jesus way of hospitality was radical and uncomfortable and difficult.

The Jesus way of hospitality was always taking the disciples by surprise and questioning their motives and their methods. Why are you feeding people when there’s no food? Why are you inviting children and the blind and lame, and worse yet, why are you always in the company of prostitutes and tax collectors and why are you always eating with sinners?

The Jesus way of hospitality looks a lot like being your sister’s keeper and forgiving her sins and seeing her need and feeding her. It is a hospitality of the spirit AND the flesh, it is a hospitality of inconvenience and ultimately of suffering. There were no pretty tablescapes and no Pinterest worthy meals in the New Testament—just a little broken bread and a some words of forgiveness and healing.

And nobody loves the Pinterest idea of Hospitality more than me. Have you SEEN my Pinterest boards lately?

I look around at all those pretty meals and tablescapes and I drool. I’ve been blogging for eight years and hospitality has always been my thing. If you visit my blog, you’ll find all kinds of resources for meals and decorating and hospitality. I ADORE holidays and tablescapes and all the pretty things. And I’m Southern so I’m supposed to be good at this, right? I LOVE finding new ideas on Pinterest for how to get supper on the table and how to make a bed out of duct tape.

But often, you know who is blessed when I’m setting beautiful tables and making lavish meals and keeping up with the Jones’s? I am. I’m proud of myself that it seems like I’ve thought of everything. I make handmade place cards and homemade pie crust and put flesh flowers into carved out pumpkins and it looks beautiful. But if I’m not careful, the people who have been with me leave my presence feeling shallowly impressed with me and not really cared for and loved on at all.

Often, My hospitality has been impressive but it has not been life-giving.

My hospitality has been pinnable but it has not been sacrificial.

My hospitality has so often been for me and not for my neighbor.

With Jesus, there is a better way. He is Hospitality incarnate.

(To read the rest, download the whole talk below as a pdf and share with your friends who might be looking for a better way than the way of the critic. If you’re already subscribed to my email list, you’ll get a message that says Already Subscribed, but it will send you the pdf anyway. If you aren’t subscribed, it will add you and you’ll get an email from me about once a week. Unsubscribe after you get the download if you don’t wish to get my weekly emails! No hard feelings, I promise.)