Walls or Bridges

When someone new enters your family, community, or workplace, make an effort to get to know them.

Take Initiative

When you share comfort, conversation, or shelter with others, you build the bridges that hold communities together and allow individuals to relate positively. Family gatherings can revive bad memories and trigger negative reactions, yet if one person looks for practical ways to benefit others, that person can set a tone that might help others overcome the cycle of negative reactions. A hospitable person knows the difficulties involved and shares with others anyway.

Decide Carefully

A hospitable person asks, “What is best for this person?” not “What will the neighbors think?” Determine what you should do in each situation, and discern the best way to serve each person.

Choose close friends and advisors from among those who demonstrate wisdom and integrity, and carefully consider the kind of people to whom you expose your children.

Consider what your actions will tell others. Differing backgrounds should not keep you from learning to talk with coworkers, but you might need to exercise deference in some situations.

You might not take everyone to dinner, but you can still extend small courtesies and make others feel welcome.

Share Alike

Always respect the friendship another person extends through a meal or conversation, and express your gratefulness.

Many inflict loneliness on themselves by trying to appear perfect or invulnerable. You cannot express true hospitality without taking part in other’s lives and opening your life to others.

The living room floor might not always be vacuumed, and the welcome mat might not be perfectly straight, but these details should not keep you from trying to benefit others.

Express gratefulness for the benefits others bring into your life, and reach out to those in need.

Hospitality In Balance

Plan Decisively

Decisiveness is “the ability to recognize key factors and finalize difficult decisions.” Choose carefully whom you bring into your life in person and through entertainment. When you find someone in need, make a plan so that the relationship has clear structure and purpose. This habit will help you move in a positive direction.

Think Responsibly

Responsibility is “knowing and doing what is expected of me.” Responsibility prevents a hospitable person from becoming scattered and ineffective. Maintain clear priorities. Recognize those individuals for whom you are most directly responsible, and look for ways you can help them succeed.

Practice Thrift

Thriftiness is “allowing myself and others to spend only what is necessary.” Thriftiness prevents hospitality from becoming extravagance or irresponsibility. Target your generosity to others’ real needs, and secure the most benefit possible for your resources. Do not attempt to impress others or buy favor.