The rooms of our home were narrow and small. I was once the guest in a marvelous mansion nestled in the mountains where a gallery stretched the length of the front of the house, and where the light and shadow of the forest played continually in the rooms. The kitchen was almost as large as my downstairs, and the living room was exquisite with its muted tones of soft pink and grays and beiges.

My hostess, a lovely Christian woman, was sharing her plans for some social affair. Over a hundred guests were invited, and they would fit most comfortably into those elegant and spacious rooms. In kindness, she turned to me and remarked, “But it really doesn’t matter how much room you have, does it?”

I thought of my 13’ x 13’ living room, of the close quarters we experienced when we had a group of 30. I thought of of people sitting on floors and crowded into corners. I thought of of all six of us sleeping in the three upstairs bedrooms when we had two live-ins. In response, I laughed, good wholesome humor welling up in my heart, “Oh, yes it does!”

But, my hostess was right. It really doesn’t matter what size your rooms are. Somehow Christ expands the walls or compresses the people. We always seem to fit. It is the offering of what we have that counts. It is the depending upon Him to create more from what we give.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-164)

Trust is a lesson in adventurous thinking. Inviting people when you know you have nothing to serve, but depending on God to always supply, is adventurous living.

Every once in a while I became the recipient of large restaurant-size cans of food. A huge container of chicken salad became the staple for the makings for submarine sandwiches garnished with pineapple and mandarin oranges. These were served on two consecutive afternoons when I invited the women of the block to luncheons to celebrate with me the coming of spring.

Everything the Lord gives to us can be given back to Him. Then He, in turn, blesses and breaks and creates from it a bounteous provision.

I am not above saying to people we love, “Let’s have dinner together after church. I’ve got such-and-such in my refrigerator. What have you got in yours?” We have often enjoyed some odd but nevertheless nourishing meals together. And the spur-of-the-moment fellowship has been superb.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

(OHOH-163)

In learning how the Lord infuses His grace into our physical limitations, particularly when we are seeking to serve Him, I found that aA dozen eggs meant we could invite people for brunch.

Someone would invariably inquire, “Can I bring anything?” and we would assign sausage or bacon. Bread was sliced for toast with home-preserved elderberry jelly. A fruit bowl and coffee would complete the meal. The remains of half a square of cream cheese cubed into the scrambled eggs, figs in the fruit, blue and white ironstone china, and old white restaurant mugs provided flair.

How often, after inviting people home, I had no idea what we could serve and would simply depend upon the Lord to provide. Someone would slip five dollars into David’s coat pocket. Or, there would be just enough money to buy one certain ingredient which, when purchased, would round out an entire menu.

For many years we received weekly two brown paper bags of day-old bakery goods, cakes for desserts, and sweet rolls for continental breakfasts. We never bought a loaf of bread in that entire time. My mother would run into a meat sale and share a pot roast with us which we would serve for a dinner of eight.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-162)

For most of our life together, my husband, David, and I have been in the ministry. Consequently, we have well-defined economic limits. By all rights, radical hospitality should have been an impossible burden. We have generally been given some expense remuneration, but our ministry far and away exceeds that allotment.

To say the least, I have learned to be frugal. When we were living in the city, one of the daily papers published a scale of income rated per number of children and showing financial aid given to dependent mothers. I discovered that, for a family of our size, I was feeding us for less than what a mother on welfare was receiving for food.

I realized, of course, that I had paddings that many on welfare did not have: summer vegetables from my father’s garden, which we eventually learned to can for the winter; shared food from someone else’s bounty; even the academic know-how to live economically.

But, even with this help, our continual open house should have been a strain. Yet we were managing well due to some creative approaches that we were employing.

What were they?

More than at any other time, I learned how the Lord infuses His grace into our physical limitations, particularly when we are seeking to serve Him. How often, with a minimal supply and increasing demand, I can testify to His creating enough for all from fishes and loaves. Inspiration would come in that moment when I stared at the bare cupboard—“simply nothing to fix”—and suddenly! If I combined such-and-such with this-and-this, I would have an original and tasty company dinner.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-161)

Creativity has been defined as “adventurous thinking.” It is the ability to get away from the main track, break out of the mold, or diverge from the rest of society.

In the previous Blog posts we have already viewed hospitality in a creative way. We have thought adventurously, seeing Christian hospitality as the opposite of “entertaining”—those prideful attempts to impress others. In this creative approach, we have looked at hospitality as a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Now, let us continue to think adventurously and discover the specifics of hospitality.

Rollo May, the noted psychologist, writes in The Courage to Create that creativity requires limits. He reasons that the creative act “arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.”

I can easily identify my own limits to hospitality—finances, energy, time. These are legitimate strictures, thrust upon me by my circumstances. As a Christian, I also have Scriptural limitations. Christ’s injunctions about putting the Kingdom of God before our desire for material possessions, denying oneself, going the extra mile, and other mandates inform my approach to hospitality. What creative responses can come “out of the struggle with and against that which limits me”?

Many of you will not have the limitations which are mine—my grandmother at 88 seemingly has more energy than I have. Others are blessed with unlimited financial resources. And, time hangs heavy on many a hand. So, I will share these creative struggles as examples, hoping they will stimulate ideas in areas of limitation other than my own.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-160)

Each of us must learn to determine what is important in our lives. We must come to an agreement with the time which we have been allotted. If the Lord is asking us to carry on extensive ministries of hospitality, we will then be able to know the human limitations within which we work.

We will learn to adjust our attitudes and discover shortcuts. We may also experience the supernatural. We may know when He is about the flowering of that planted eternity within our hearts.

Life Response

Develop some shortcuts of your own.

1. If you don’t have a file system already, buy some folders and start clipping time-saving ideas. Be forewarned that discipline will be required—discipline to collect these useful hin,ts as well as to employ them!

2. Invite a small group of people who lead similar life-styles to brainstorm on some shortcuts which will aid effective ministry. Use each other as resource material. It’s amazing how many ideas can pop out of the head of five account executives, or homemakers, or farmers, etc.!

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

(OHOH-159)

God orders our days, to be sure.

When each morning we make the daily oblation, that sacrificial prayer offering our selves as servants for His sake, most of us can testify to His going ahead, charting, making paths clear, bringing the right people to the right place at the right time. Yet there is even more.

I think God gives us tastes of eternity; moments stretched allowing us to do more than we ever expected. Twenty minutes of sharing in which we plumb the depths of another soul at a level that normally requires years.

How often after rising early, spending time in His Presence, and committing the activities of His day to planning, have I looked in amazement at the clock. By all rights it should read “11:30,” according to all that has been accomplished. Yet I discover it is just 9:00.

In some strange way, when we are about His business, He makes the eternity, about which we know so very little, work in our favor.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-158)

I am learning that there is always time for the things the Lord wants us to do. The writings of Charles Williams opened my mind more than anything else to the fact that our God does not exist in a world of time the way we humans do.

This English writer had the amazing ability of realistically combining the spiritual world with the material world. Each of his seven novels has the flavor of that Old Testament incident at Dothan where the prophet Elisha prayed that the eyes of his servants might be opened to see the fiery chariots and forces of the Lord. In All Hallows’ Eve, the city of death is superimposed upon the city of life. Or, according to Williams, they “co inhere.” The reader’s mind is continually stretched to look at time in ingenious and in more-than-human ways.

I like to think of time as a capsule spinning out in space. In this protective enclosure man exists. Outside is the vast universe into which he makes tentative explorations, discovering that there the aging process is slowed. Time is a human dimension, not a godly one. God cannot be contained by time.

Scripture proclaims in Isaiah that He is “the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity.” God is outside the capsule, beyond our limited concept of time. One thousand years are as but a day in His sight. Our minds are boggled at the mathematics required to communicate this incomprehensible dimension. Yet that very universe is somehow contained for, by, and within Him.

Ecclesiastes tells us, “He has planted eternity in our hearts.” What the ramifications of this may be are hard to tell. Perhaps there is an inner yearning to be beyond time, a continual struggle for immortality, for example, in the dictator, perverted as he seeks to strike lasting notches in finite time. I see some of this struggle in myself, yet there is more. Daily I experience, when I am doing the work He has set me to do, His manipulation of this human element to increase my usefulness for Himself.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-157)

When we regularly entertain for sit-down dinners, we often invite people to bring one course for the meal.

One family is in charge of appetizers, another the salad, and another the dessert. This leaves me responsible for the main dish, accompanying vegetables, and bread. Sometimes I ask for specific donations, such as a fresh green salad. But more likely, I just allow people to bring whatever the spirit moves them to conjure up.

A friend recently reminded me of an evening about which I had forgotten: the “bring-a-pie” night. We invited about 40.

Half of them brought marvelous home-baked delicacies. There was next to no work for me. I simply extended invitations, plugged in the coffee pot, mixed a cold fruit drink, and offered a welcome heart. I didn’t even make a pie! There was no need. The buffet table groaned from a delectable array of 20 choices.

Rule number six: Keep files.

Four file drawers filled with folders stuffed with clippings is the secret of my avowed creativity. There is an envelope for “Organizational Ideas,” for “Economy—Food,” for “Breakfasts” and “Main Dishes” and “Appetizers.” One swift glance can provide me with enough stimulation for a month of creative and systematized hospitality. These files are the only way I can justify the expense of women’s magazines.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-156)

Rule number five: Use all the help that comes your way.

Gone forever are the days when I’d rather do it myself. I have learned about the inestimable value of helping hands. If some one asks, “Is there anything I can do for you?” I will probably respond, “Yes!”

In fact, there is something so satisfactory about sharing work with a friend, coordinating an evening for a large group in conjunction with someone else’s gifts and ideas that I will probably never again attempt to solo navigate through another huge affair!

Many a pleasurable evening has been co-hostessed with other women in the church. These have become opportunities for knowing one another as well as ministering.

A friend and I once recognized that many new couples needed to become acquainted with each other. We jointly planned a crepe dinner. We each flipped one hundred of these thin French pancakes, served punch for the appetizer, a sauce of mushrooms, ham, and sour cream for the main dish, and offered several choices—raspberry and peach melba, butterscotch and almonds, some thing chocolate—for dessert.

She provided chafing dishes and extra utensils, a large coffee server, and placemats. My contribution was the home and the beverages. We set up tables in every room downstairs, with punch bowls in several places, and enjoyed the evening getting acquainted ourselves.

I am no longer afraid to ask someone to toss the green salad I didn’t have time to put together, or to fry bacon for those hurried after-church brunches. My family has learned to lend invaluable assistance. They rally in that last hour before guests arrive—David takes care of dinner music and “licks and promises,” those getting-children-presentable details. My oldest son, Randall, is in charge of ice and water. My daughter, Melissa, arranges appetizers and serves them. All are expected to be on standby in case of emergencies.

For breakfasts my husband is generally the chef-in-command, seeing as he has an eager hand with an egg and experience working as a short-order cook, which includes skill in flipping pancakes, turning browned sausages, and rounding off ground meat patties just so.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

(OHOH-155)

Rule number four: Clean as you go.

This is the cardinal principle to orderly management. Leave a room as ordered as you found it. Straighten up before you retire for bed at night.

Clean pots and pans and utensils directly after use. I have developed a system whereby I wash the dishes after each course of a large party. The kitchen is already straightened from last-minute preparations.

The punch cups are washed after the children have collected them and people are sitting in the living room talking. The salad and dinner plates are cleared by the children while I scrape and wash and stack.

All that remains is dessert silverware and plates, goblets, coffee and tea cups, serving dishes. A major portion of the cleanup is accomplished before the last course, at which time I relax, enjoy the conversation, and think about how little there is left to do.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-154)

Rule number three: Do as much ahead of time as possible.

Once my approach to homemaking became more orderly—when I sat down and planned a week rather than allowing each day to just happen—I could foresee setting aside special time in preparation for a special event. Frozen salads could be mixed on Tuesday. I could prepare the chicken divan on Thursday evening and then place it in the refrigerator. I could bake the dessert some morning after breakfast, when all the accumulated dishes could be washed at the same time.

Friday’s dinner became a breeze. Nothing is more satisfactory than to be able to take a nap on the afternoon of an event, or to spend the morning at the library with the children.

In fact, because my schedule is now necessarily tight, doing ahead has become a game. I collect those recipes which do not require last-minute preparation—soufflés are out! I treasure foods which look great, taste terrific, but which require a minimum of kitchen time.

The trusted old standbys are utilized frequently. I test myself against the ease of a hospitality occasion. Hard work indicates that I am slipping back into old habits, running behind, not managing my time well, not planning or preparing ahead, doing too much, not being dependent on the Lord’s strength, but on my own. An aching back is a sure sign that I need to reevaluate.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-153)

Recently several of us were recalling special touches of class our mothers practiced.

My mother had a gift for last-minute inspiration. She worked, managed a big house, raised three kids, and loyally supported her high-pressure husband, who invariably involved us all in his choirs, recitals, retirement schemes, and other plans. Consequently, her entertaining was off the cuff, spur of the moment.

I lovingly recall the clean-the-refrigerator affairs on Sunday evening after church. The food was served hodge-podge on the kitchen table, but it had a personality all its own—the oyster stew suppers eaten off trays before the log-laden fire, the summer watermelon wedges glowing pink, green, and pearl piled in a basket.

David remembers his mother always serving beautifully. Mom is a woman with incredible energy who has established what for most would be impossible standards. She serves even casual snacks with placemats. Her home is a visual delight.

I once asked my husband if he remembered her in anything but high heels, and he laughed with the memory of her scrubbing a floor in heels and earrings looking like a queen. This is flair that is organized, controlled, and splendid.

It is classic Oriental antiques and polished surfaces and mellow lighting. “Nothing is worth doing without doing well.” It is a treat. Someone else commented on how his mother had served playmates peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—cut in wedges, resting on a white doily which was perched on a silver plate. That is definitely flair.

We each will develop our own style, but let us do it with delight, remembering Who is the source of these waiting-to-be-discovered homemaking triumphs.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-152)

The second rule builds on the first: Don’t be afraid to do things with flair.

An old patchwork quilt for a table cloth, huge baskets of dried fall weeds, a stylish hostess gown (no matter if it’s a hand-me-down as long as it looks good)—only one or two old dependables with class can cover a multitude of cleaning errors. Flair is a creative expression God has imprinted on our souls. Yet we Christians are wary of those dramatic touches of finesse.

God is not afraid to display His creativity. If we did one room in our home copying the glorious colors in just one of His sunsets, people would think we were outrageous. Yet He has donned His world with style and class and exquisite taste and breathtaking color combinations and scintillating humor. Humor? Well, have you ever looked at the rear end of a baboon! And, He allows this repetition of glory and delightful surprise in His human creature, as long as we don’t slip into the error of thinking it is all of ourselves.

Old wooden bowls and the variegated pile of baskets intrigue me. I use them as serving pieces. I love to provide fresh fruits in place of heavy, sweet desserts. Their appetizing colors are delightful. The yellows and oranges and purples sit juxtaposed against the grains of an antique hand-turned basin. These contrasts satisfy some unknown need in me. For flair, I add crumpled, wizened figs on a string which I buy from a Greek grocer.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

(OHOH-151)

Most of us don’t have all the time we want to carry on ministries of hospitality. We seek to discover shortcuts so that we can open our homes with a minimum of effort. Through the years certain basic principles have been helpful in allowing me to combine an open home with the other complicated demands on my time.

The first one is: Never clean before company.

Once I had established a system of housekeeping, it was not necessary to make the house spotless before people arrived. I didn’t clean for people, I cleaned on schedule. This has freed enormous quantities of time. For many years all I did was get ready for groups and pick up after them. Finally, I have learned that things don’t need to be spotlessly clean, only in order.

When things are in order, people are not going to notice if the rug was not vacuumed that morning. And even if they do, they will probably feel more at home. I have invariably made close friends when they saw dishes stacked in the kitchen, or dust on the piano, or fingerprints on the front door!

I follow this rule so adamantly that I save my cleaning routine for after company is gone—the housekeeping is scheduled for Saturday morning after the late Friday night potluck dinner. Obviously I make clean sheets available for overnight guests—but I am not above stripping the mattress and asking those same people to put the fresh linen on it for me. The guest bathroom is refreshed after the sand-and-peanut-butter crowd. But, I am not a fanatic, since spotlessness is impossible as long as there is grit and goo to wash off little hands.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-150)

“Am I being a good steward of my time?” This question starts many a journey.

Witness my own marriage. I look back with fondness to the time I recognized that I was well on my way to becoming a compulsive worker just as my husband was finally traveling in the opposite direction toward the light hearted, impulsive decade of 40!

Yet, with laughter aside, the stewardship of time is an inquiry of magnitude. One that has not only helped to form the dimensions of my gift of hospitality, but has defined the parameters of my personality as well. I am becoming a good manager of my time, and through that, of my life.

Life Response

1. An excellent book on time management for Christian women has been written by Pat King. It is titled, How Do You Find the Time, and can be ordered from Amazon by clicking on this link.

2. If you have never charted your time or activities, do so now. Buy a notebook and log the way your precious days pass. Continue this for several weeks in order to gain a fair understanding.

3. Also take a few moments to list your personal goals. What is it you want to do with your life? What things are important?

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-149)

There is nothing wrong with serving things elegantly. I recall one friend rebuking me when I had gone overboard on a simplicity kick by saying, “I love it when people go to extra efforts. It makes me feel as though they have a special reason to do so much for me.”

I needed to hear those words. And, ever since have taken that attitude when I am on the receiving end of hospitality. I have learned to enjoy the work of another’s hands.

However, I have personally found great freedom in guarding my own motives, being sure that extra frills stem from a desire to give, to minister, rather than from a desire to impress.

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For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-148)

Turkeys have always been my Waterloo.

On our first Thanksgiving we invited both sets of grandparents to celebrate the traditional meal in our honeymoon apartment. The moment they walked up the stairs it was as though someone had released a smoke bomb in the kitchen. Our flat was inundated. Smoky fumes seeped from one room to another.

Choking, but mustering as much aplomb as possible, I ushered each set of grandparents into our bedroom, seated them on the bed to get acquainted, and closed the door to protect them from the acrid atmosphere. Then, gasping and heaving for air, David and I rushed about throwing open windows, flapping the billows of smoke out with towels, leaning our heads out windows for a breath of fresh air, then plunging back to battle.

This process was complicated by the fact that David and I were laughing uncontrollably.

Finally the air cleared. The turkey was unimpaired. It had simply been too large for its pan and the juices had leaked into the broiler pan, which smoked happily ever afterward whenever heated and had to finally be discarded.

If I remember correctly it was a decent enough first Thanksgiving meal. But my grandfather put the coup de grace on it ten years later when he reminded me of the event.

“Do you know, Karen Sue,” he revealed most confidentially, “I never told anyone about it.” Appreciating his honorable intent, it was now my turn to keep a confidence. He never knew that his valor was unnecessary, since I had revealed this disgraceful incident to at least a few thousand people myself.

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Karen Mains has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen Mains and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

In addition, pastors will find special resources to help them create effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

(OHOH-147)

To me maturing has been a lengthy process of letting go—letting go of props that bolster one’s ego, letting go of ploys and gambits that vault us in the eyes of other people, letting go of many of the material means that become so important in our eyes. How lovely to be able, finally, to laugh at our disasters!

I remember one sultry summer evening in our third-floor apartment. It was the third week of a Chicago heat wave. Even the bare wood floor had absorbed the warmth. The curtains were muggy. The breeze off the lake barely stirred the sycamore leaves in the courtyard. Instead of using the oven, I chose to serve a cold salad dinner and ran to the nearby grocer to purchase an assortment of ice cream bars for dessert.

At the end of the main course, I slipped into the kitchen and pulled the sack of popsicles and ice cream bars from the freezer. To my dismay I discovered it was so warm they hadn’t refrozen. Peeling the soggy wrappers from each one I had no choice but to put away my pride, scoop the sloppy messes into individual bowls, accent them with their wooden sticks as a clue as to what they had once been, and serve them to the puzzled guests. Matters were complicated because a melted ice cream bar is considerably smaller than a frozen one and my cereal bowls were rather large. I could do nothing but laugh and pass the spoons. I’m still laughing now.

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Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen Mains serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

An award-winning author of several other books, Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-146)

A good thermometer as to whether pride was rising in me was to ask two questions:

Am I nervous?

Am I fussing?

These were pretty good indicators of the true nature of my intentions. If I was nervous, getting jumpy before that sit-down dinner for eight, I could assume something had gone awry within. Was I afraid the new recipe would flop, or that someone might wander into an unclean room and, in either case, people would think less of me?

For me nervousness stemmed from nothing more than pride. What did it matter if the centerpiece was less than spectacular, if the rolls were slightly more than brown on the bottom, or if the door to the little boys’ room was closed because to enter was to take one’s life in one’s hands?

If I found myself fussing too much about spots on the glasses, getting upset because I had to clean the bathroom sink again, going wild because someone had walked on the freshly vacuumed shag, what did it mean? Who was coming that I was trying to impress with all these efforts? Didn’t my over-concern indicate that I was depending on my human efforts to make the evening a success? Hadn’t I forgotten that indefinable spiritual quality which found its source in the Holy Spirit? Again the answer was pride—pride rearing its subtle and manipulative head, forcing me to think only of myself.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Karen has long had an interest in Christian hospitality and is the author of the best-selling book, Open Heart, Open Home.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and churches at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

(OHOH-145)