A Life That Says Welcome

Katie and I have just finished reading A Life That Says Welcome by Karen Ehman, a homeschooling mom. The cover describes this book as Simple Ways to Open Your Heart and Home to Others and Mrs. Ehman does indeed do a good job explaining and encouraging women to do just that.

A Live That Says Welcome is a Christian book that teaches how to prepare our hearts, first, for hospitality. Using a lot of humor, the author tells about her own upbringing and early marriage and her early attempts at entertaining. She shows through scripture how we should learn to be hospitable and have a welcoming heart in every aspect of our life instead of just entertaining people in our home. She talks about the need to be hospitable to our own family first. She gives lots of ideas of how to incorporate fun things into our family life and has included some fun, easy recipes.

There's a chapter about cleaning, since many women use the excuse that the house is too dirty to invite people over. Mrs. Ehman gives some hints about de-cluttering as well as including some recipes for homemade cleaning supplies, a list of helpful cleaning and de-cluttering books, and has some good advice about children's chores. There's a chapter about how to make the most of a small house, how to decorate on a shoestring, and how to be hospitable in places other than the house. She talks about freezer meals and relates tips for extending hospitality easily on the Sabbath.

This book could be used for small group discussion because there are points to ponder, Biblical examples of people who were hospitable, and lots and lots of recipes and hints.

A Life That Says Welcome would make a wonderful wedding present or a gift for any woman, married or single, who either is new to having people into their home or, like me, just likes to read about homemaking and making their home more inviting to others.