Growing up, our home was filled with people. Besides the fact that I grew up having seven siblings (truth), our home was filled with people who needed a place for retreat or loud parties celebrating birthdays or friends over for lunch on Sunday afternoon. There was no such thing as "too many people". My dad built the table to fill as many people as it could and then there were always chairs scattered around our home to eat with your plate balancing on your lap...and if there weren't any chairs left, there was always room on the stairs or around the fireplace.
This has stuck with me and has continued to be my normal. In college, girls would gather in my room just hanging out. There were even a few times that I just crawled under my blankets and went to sleep with girls still chatting together in my room. (This was probably the night after I pulled an all-nighter the day before trying to finish a paper, like the procrastinator that I was...am.)
When Jesse and I got married and living on campus in a little duplex, we would invite friends who lived in dorms for meals after church or for them to just get away from dorm life for a few hours.
Now that we are living in our small home with our boys, we could use the excuse that there isn't enough room at the table for people to come over for a meal. I remember though, those moments seeing friends of my parents, balancing their plates on their lap and we have decided to put aside that lie that we can't have anyone over because our house is too small. There is always room for people in our home.
It doesn't need to be fancy.
You don't need to have a sparkling clean house.
Just invite someone.
We would have missed out on some pretty amazing friendships with people if we didn't invite them over to our home. I really hate putting myself out there like that - I'll be honest. What if they think our kids are too loud, or that our house is too small, or that my jokes are too lame? (they probably do think my jokes are lame, but they laugh anyways)
Some of our dearest friends are the ones that we have invited over and found ourselves chatting till late in the evening, long after supper. Then the next week they come over again. Before we knew it, we couldn't imagine why we were scared to invite them in the first place.
So, this week either make a plan or invite someone over spontaneously and enjoy having people over in your home. Make something simple, like chili or soup...or chicken wings and fries. Put aside the lie that they are too busy or won't want to come over or that your house is too small. Most people are just longing for an invitation to hang out.
There will be a sink filled with dirty dishes afterwards in the kitchen, but what would be worse? Missing out on an amazing friendship or dirty dishes? I'll take dirty dishes any day, that's for sure.
