“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,” Acts 2:46 (NIV) / Pixabay
Avoid
There are lots of things we avoid. I would guess that some of the what I avoid, you do too. Things like snakes, bats, closed in spaces, the dentist, and others. Then there are those things that since moving to my rural, farming town I’ve had to learn to avoid the hard way: such as being stuck in a manure pile, an angry rooster, or eating raw ramps. And of course, there are those things I’ve learned to avoid by mistake, specifically swallowing a chicken bone, trusting my GPS, and brightly dying my hair the day before leaving on a trip with my friends.
On the flip side, we all have things we avoid that we shouldn’t. I’m thinking of things such as exercise, a yearly check-up (including the weigh in), ** cleaning out our closets, and getting together more often.
Why is it that most of us don’t make time to gather with friends and family anymore? Yes, we’re busy. But are we really too busy to find time to share a meal, have a game night, sit around and talk with those we care about or do we just no longer make it a priority? I’m asking myself these same questions. Knowing there’s so much pain and suffering in the world today and time is short, shouldn’t we want to be with each other more rather than less?
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. Hebrews 10:24-25 (NLT)
Just imagine the difference it might make in our lives, our communities, our world if we’d come together more to support and be supported, to inspire and be inspired, to minister to and be ministered to. Or, to simply laugh and have fun. I think it’s about time to make a change. How about you? What if we stop looking at our phones and watching our T.V.’s as much, left work a little earlier, cleared a day on our calendar, and instead shared some of that time with friends and family? Let’s challenge each other starting today, to scratch gathering with one another off our “to avoid” list and begin making it a priority to “not neglect our meeting together”. Are you with me?
Now, who wants play a game of Yahtzee and have some popcorn?
This post is written as part of the 31 Days of Five Minute Friday Free Writes Challenge. You can read posts from other writers on the same topics over at http://www.fiveminutefriday.com I hope you know that I so appreciate you being here! God bless, Cindy
I love this perspective and reminder. Until two years ago, I would have said I unintentionally avoid getting together with friends. At our church we started having fellowship dinners where people sign up to host or be a guest. The family who hosts has the guests at their home and everybody brings something. We do that once each quarter. Another thing that happened two years ago is that a woman in my church started asking other women if they were interested in walking with her. Now about 4 or 5 days a week, including winter, we walk on a trail for about an hour then go have coffee or breakfast at a local restaurant. Because of those things, I have been more open about inviting women over for lunch and conversation instead of meeting at a restaurant. Little baby steps, but I am not going to avoid any longer. Nice job!!
I love these ideas Jane! I think a lot about hosting others. I pin recipes on Pinterest. I think about how to do the table but it just seems to stay in my head. I really want to begin to be intentional about showing hospitality. Thank you so much for taking time to share your thoughts with me!
If I was closer I’d love to come round for games and popcorn! It is important to make time for people and not allow life to make us too busy.
Wouldn’t that be fun!!! I don’t really have an excuse for not inviting more people over. Even have the word “gather” on my wall. It is something I’d like to start though!