Lessons from Game Night

For probably just over a year at this point, the Mr. and I have been a part of a home group at our church. While growing up, my parents were part of a home group...but trust me. This isn't my parent's home group. That's one of the things I love about it.

Jenga inspired coasters. $4 "Tumbling Towers" and hot glue. Oh my!!

In the group, there are other couples at or around our age. Everyone's circumstances are different, but at the same time we can all relate to one another. It's taken me almost until now (I'm ridiculously shy at times) to get out of my shell, but truly...they have become like family. Considering neither my family or the Mr's family live in our city, our home group family has become that much more precious. We love them dearly.

Nostalgic snack and candy bar. Peanuts, Gummy Bears, Dum Dum's, Jelly Beans, Ring Pops, and more. Oh my!

Press pause because there is something else you should probably know.

The Lord has been working on my heart about hospitality. Weird, right? Well, at least I thought it was. It was so unexpected. Anyhow, our home is awesome. My husband bought it while he was still a bachelor, and I am so blessed to call it home. I'm also blessed that he let me into the buying process a bit even though we were not yet engaged. (He's the best. I know. ;) The house is spacious, comfy, and open. It's pretty much everything I love in a house, except for 2 things. 1. It doesn't have a linen closet (so odd!) 2. We have no idea how to decorate it. (Pinterest has given me some ideas, but finding the time and money is difficult.) We have no curtains up. An old yet exceptionally comfy couch purchased from Craig's List adorns our family room. Likewise an old yet exceptionally functional pool table purchased from Craig's List sits in our informal dining room. Our home is wonderful. Our home is just plain awesome. Our home is a blessing. Yet it is still a bit....beige.

Yum!

I am the girl with BIG hair and BIG earrings who loves making BIG statements (on occasion) so our "beigeness" sometimes gets under my skin. For a while now, I've been nagging talking with the Mr. about making some changes. We've painted the front door, put a few things on the walls, but yeah...our home is still a bit "beige". Once that changed, we could THEN start to entertain others and host more stuff in our home. Right? It sounded like a great plan to me, but then it started. The Lord started getting my attention in this area. I don't remember how it started, but I remember when it became too much for me to ignore. Leadership Class at church. I simply remember this. There is a difference between entertaining others and hospitality. Hospitality has little to do with the decoration of our home, and more to do with the condition of our hearts. Ouch!

That's when I started to get it. I put it that way because I don't think I fully get it. yet. God will help me with that. It's just that I'm starting to see that welcoming loved ones into our home is about the time we spend with them and how good they feel while they are there. It's not about the colors on the wall or how large our television is. Frankly put, it's not about me.

One of the couples brought the AMAZING goodies above.

It's not to mean that all of our walls will stay beige. They won't. It's not to mean that our television won't be any bigger. Trust me. It will. It simply means our heart is changing, and because of that our motives and actions will follow suit.

Okay. Now back to our home group family. What better way to step out in this area than to have everyone over for game night? This is exactly what we did.

It was one of the girl's birthdays so another friend made some DELICIOUS cupcakes to celebrate. Chocolate chip cookie on the bottom. Chocolate chips in the batter. Chocolate cookie dough filling. Mmmm...

All of the pics are of the little details. We didn't get any pics of the group because well...we were too busy laughing and playing games to stop and take pics during.

This one is my absolute favorite...

We so enjoyed having our amazing home group family over and the fun time spent with them. They were such gracious guests too! I didn't quite nail the hospitality part this time around, but my heart was in it. We just wanted everyone to have a good time, and I think they did. (Yay!) Here's to hoping that our guests saw our heart through the little well thought out details until we figure out how to open the door just right, how to keep the conversation going, how to walk everyone out properly when it's time to go, and all of that other stuff we have yet to learn.