Sara: As a stay-at-home mom, it’s super-easy for me to go through an entire week and realize the only “adult conversation” I’ve had is with Justin. Since I’m naturally a shy person, I usually find it difficult both to make friends and to initiate get-togethers. However, it’s not healthy for Gus and me to remain cooped up in the house together all week!

At times, I also find it difficult to invite friends over as it’s nearly impossible to keep our house picked up and cleaned up with Gus. Even when I do manage to put everything in its place, many times it only takes ten minutes for Gus to pull out all of his toys, make handprints on our windows, or throw his Cheerios on the ground.

Then, a couple weeks ago, one of Justin’s friends called and said he was passing through in thirty minutes and asked if he could stop and see us. Justin said sure and called to tell me to set an extra plate for dinner. At first, I was a little frustrated with the situation. I was in the middle of making dinner, so my kitchen was incredibly dirty, Gus needed to be changed, and the living room needed a major cleanup. I hurried to get the house and ourselves as presentable as possible, which included shutting the bedroom doors. After our friend arrived, I realized the craziness of my mission. He hadn’t come to see how clean our house was. Our friend came to see Justin, Gus, and me.

After our friend left, Justin and I discussed how good it had been for the two of us to have some outside company. We truly enjoyed the opportunity to see and hear about the world farther than our four walls. Our friend was really able to encourage us in our mission with a family. Justin and I realized it’s not good for us to only talk to each other. I can tell a difference when I spend time with friends – I just feel better! While it’s good to have some internet relationships, there’s just something about sitting down for dinner together that helps good conversation flow.

Justin and I have decided that as Gus grows up we want our house to be the “fun” house. We want Gus and his friends to want to come over to our house to play so we can know Gus’ friends. We want to eventually get a swing set so Gus and his friends will enjoy playing in our yard and we want to budget extra money for snacks for Gus and his friends. We feel it’s good to both know Gus’ friends and to show them our relationship with Jesus. However, if I want to be the “fun” house, I need to get over the fact that people might see my messy kitchen, the laundry unfolded, or our rubber tubs lining the fireplace so Gus doesn’t bump his head.

And if I need to get over these things eventually, I might as well begin now. During the summer, Justin and I have decided to invite someone or a family that we’d like to get to know better over to dinner once a week. It’s time to stop using excuses of my dirty house (which probably won’t be as clean as what I would like for at least eighteen years when Gus leaves the house) and just start inviting people over. We’ve been saying for too long that we’d like to have these people over and it never happens. So we have decided to begin now.