MY NEW FAMILY BUSINESS

One of the obvious priorities for me is my home life. Since the accident, I’ve been barely able to do damage control around the house.

My oldest son (age 13) sent me an email a few months ago. I was surprised to find it in my “in box” because he never sends me emails. He said he was sorry that I was hurting so badly and hoped that I’d get better soon. It was the last line that pierced my heart “I miss the old mom”.

I began wondering what he meant by “the old mom”. What did he remember that I wasn’t able to do anymore?

I remembered the days when I ran a registered daycare in my home. It was my home-based business, and I took it very seriously. In order to be reimbursed for the meals I served, I had to prepare nutritious menu plans and meals. The house was kept very clean to keep everyone (especially my own children) healthy. The rooms were picked up frequently so that little feet wouldn’t trip and fall over a lot of clutter. That’s what came to my mind when he mentioned “the old mom”.

Once I went to work away from home, my attention shifted. I had a new business to run and my home-keeping at times slipped into hobby status.

As I was pondering this, I began asking God what I should do.

“The Smidt Family Bed and Breakfast” is what came to mind.

At first I argued with Him. “I don’t want another job!!!” But over the course of several days My Heavenly Daddy began to remind me about all of the times that people have noticed my gift of hospitality. He also reminded me of the times that I had experienced the gift of hospitality in the homes of my friends and family.

I began to realize that I wasn’t supposed to run this “home based business” by myself. He wanted me to teach my entire family about the gift of hospitality and teach them some of the necessary skills (like meal planning, food prep, and clean-up). But I noticed there was an unexpected by product of this teaching time.

They began to enjoy the fellowship with me in the kitchen and take pride in the new skills they’re learning. My youngest son is becoming an expert at running the bread machine. We’ve enjoyed fresh hot bread at our meals, caramel rolls, homemade pizza and now we’re moving on to homemade buns.

We’ve also come to realize that my oldest son has a real talent when it comes to selecting seasonings to flavor up the food we’re cooking. Each of them have learned how to set a table properly and they even enjoy lighting candles as part of our evening meal preparations.

They’re beginning to enjoy their own gifts of hospitality. And I’m beginning to realize that “The Smidt Family B&B is actually more of a ministry than a business.

As my children grow up and move away, they’ll have the opportunity to open their own little franchises. And who knows; once their friends experience that gift of hospitality, perhaps they too will be inspired to open a franchise as well.

This entry was posted on January 28, 2008 at 7:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.