A Valuable Upbringing

With six children in our family and my mother being a stay-at-home mom, it was always a bit of a challenge making sure all of the bills were paid, the cars were road-worthy, that we were all well-clothed and adequately provided for. For a family that should have struggled, we were pretty well taken care of and I was never ashamed of our lifestyle. However, because my dad worked so hard all of the time, he was often tired and irritable when he came home. He wasn't interested in doing a lot of socializing or leaving the house. Instead, he stayed in the living and would fall asleep to the TV almost every night. This did not make our home very conducive to people coming over to visit in the off hours of the day. I wasn't very proud of how inhospitable our home was. I never had a very good explanation, either, for why we didn't very often have friends over. 

However, seeing how he had such a large impact on the social goings-on of our home life, and the negative results of his selfish actions, I am now able to see how I can have a much more positive influence on my future home. It motivates me, actually, to think that I can some day have that hospitable, welcoming home that I had always longed for as a child growing up. It's strange to be thankful for a poor home environment, but without it I wouldn't be as aware nor as motivated to strive for a warm and hospitable home. And what a great ministry an open-door home can be!