My mother was the Queen of Hospitality. When I was 16 years old, she would make homemade chicken tenders and all of the trimmings, and bring it to the car wash where I worked. My friends inahaled her Southern delicacies. I have tried to replicate her chicken tenders on more than one occasion, but finally gave up. When I was in college, we were welcomed home from Texas Tech football games with homemade stew and cornbread. My friends living in the dorm loved it. My mother would have been proud of me. She actually taught me a few things about hospitality. When Randall was in high school, I would often get phone calls informing me that anywhere from 2-15 teens were at our house, and dinnertime is quickly approaching. I never attempted to fix chicken. Burgers or fajitas were standards on the dad menu. I never got any complaints.

Hospitality is important. Hosting people in our homes is rapidly becoming a lost art. I don’t recall the last time I ate homemade chicken tenders. In the past two weeks I have learned some new lessons about hospitality. When we were getting ready to make the 16 hour trip to Ft. Collins for our nephew’s funeral, friends from church brought a cooler of cold drinks and enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feed a small army. I ate the first one about 10:30 at night, when we stopped in Post, TX for a break. A pbj never tasted better. It is as if I could taste love in a sandwich.

After being gone for 5 days, we returned to work and attempted to get our wits about us. The second day we were home more friends from church brought dinner one night. Roast, gravy, and all of the trimmings… It was a huge help. We were so behind. There had not been time to go to the store or even think about cooking for that matter. We sat around the feast that night and acted like we had never seen roast beef before.

I am thankful that I was raised in the home of the Queen of Hospitality. I am equally thankful for wonderful friends. The gift of hospitality is important. Providing basic needs for people when there is a crisis going on their family is a priceless act of service. I think I will buy an extra jar of Peter Pan peanut butter this week. I can’t do chicken tenders, but I can make a mean pbj sandwich.