31 Days of Intentional Living - Day 10

A Home with Hospitality

Your Challenge:  What is holding you back from letting others into your home and heart?  Start small!  Invite a friend over for a cup of tea or coffee!  For those of you who regularly entertain others in your home, do you have any tips?

Having people over has always been a worry for me as I'm worried they will judge me for my mess and clutter! But as Jenny pointed out in today's blog; people don't come to judge they come to visit and talk. 
Before anyone visits I clean the main areas of our small house and close the doors on the rooms that are the messiest and unnecessary for guests. This helps to ease my mind about having people over. 
I'm going to invite my mother over for a cup of tea. She hardly comes over and that is probably because she doesn't want to impose. I think she will love to visit and I would love to catch up with her! 

31 Days of Intentional Living - Day 9

Making and Maintaining Friends

"So my question for you is, how do you make time for your friendships?  Are you spontaneous?  Do you plan out a few times a month that work to get together?  My goal today is to offer encouragement to the woman who is searching for new friends, to give her ideas of places to meet friends and ideas of what to do when you are together.

Do you find it hard to make new friends?  What encouragement do you have for the other women reading this?  For those of you who have a great friends group, how did you meet and what do you like to do together?  Please share your tips!"

It is interesting that after not doing these posts for over a week, I return to them the day after I felt that I need to do something about my female friendships and find that the next 'day' is about making and maintaining friendships! I thought about my friendships yesterday and felt discouraged when I saw a good friend whom is visiting her home town and everyone was so delighted to see her (she is also pregnant) that I didn't get to spend much time with her. 

I came to the conclusion that as my love language is quality time I need to seek out time to spend with my friends. I find it hard to make new friends but I am always kind to everyone in the hopes they will like me and be my friend! All my best friends are really kind and sweet and I know they do not neglect me as their friend but instead do not realise that I really need to spend time with them to feel like they do care for me. I think this is my own fault however as I have not shown it as a priority. 

To start I have contacted a friend who is the wife of a friend of Nathan's to see if she is free. In turn she said she would love to have both of us over for dinner tonight! Perhaps if I make contact with a friend each day then I will feel more connected to my friends. It is hard to balance work, a marriage and a relationship with God as well as friends. With God's help I know I can do all things and that includes balancing my life! I place it all in His hands.