Inviting People Into Your World

We've been youth pastors for 18 years and have had the privilege to know some amazing young people. We've also had the privilege of having many of those young people go from "youth" to "friends", many have gotten married and are starting families, many are now youth leaders with us, some are still single. Many of those do not have family close by.

 We love inviting people into our world, especially those who are single, those who don't have much family in the area, those who just need relationship. Singles always seem to be the most available and those are the ones that normally grace our home with their presence.

The snag to this, is that our lives have gotten increasingly busy with soccer and other things going on, and so time is tight for having people over. As much as I like to "plan" things, sometimes a "last minute" invite is all there's time for.

 Monday night I was making dinner and realized it was only going to be hubby and myself. Nan and Kat were both at friends' houses. I sent hubby a text at work and said I had plenty of dinner and if he wanted to invite a particular friend over to please do so. He did and it was a nice evening! 

I know many people who tend to not invite people into their worlds, their homes, their lives. That's not who we are, it's not who we want to be. Whether it's for a game, a movie, dinner, dessert, even joining us for a few days during our usual yearly vacation to Sunriver, we love inviting people to take part in our lives.

What about you? Do you invite people in, or do you stay to yourself?

I knew this particular friend we had over on Monday loved fish and I was grilling some fresh Steelhead that another friend had brought by our house on Saturday. I also served grilled veggies (even picked a yellow squash out of my garden), and parmesan couscous. I had some leftover dessert and potato salad and we just had a conglomeration of yummy goodness!

With Joy UNquenchable,