Back in the day, it was considered rude to neglect to offer guests refreshment. Whatever we had in the house at the time a guest arrived, was offered as a way of showing them our delight at their visit. Even if the guest came unannounced, dropping in unexpectedly they were shown pleasure at their arrival.
Unexpected guests were treated with great kindness and made to feel welcome. The best way to welcome a guest is to offer them drink and a snack.
If we were sitting down to a meal when an unexpected guest arrived, they would be offered a place at the table to share in the meal.
Believe it or not, this was common with everyone. This hospitality seems to have been lost in the younger generation, by younger I mean the 40 somethings and under.
We were taught this by example as well as lessons in Home Economic classes in school.
We were so trained in this practice that we were embarrassed when someone came and it slipped our minds to offer refreshment. We would apologize and immediately get up to get some.
There was an old saying that described the hospitality of the host and also the hospitality of the guest. Yes the guest was expected to appreciate any offer of refreshment and accept it. It was rude to neglect to offer refreshment and rude for the guest to ask for it, it was also rude to refuse it when offered by the hostess.
Has anyone else experienced this loss of hospitality among this new generation?
The more our culture focuses on self, the more we lose the old traditions of hospitality and kindness. In order to be kind and hospitable we must defer to others. Selfish people hate manners and hospitality because it means they are submitting to the needs and desires of others.
I have actually experienced younger people acting embarrassed at manners and hospitality. They seemed to think it something strange.
Can we say: "divorce and remarriage", as an indication of this lack of deference to others. This is only one sin that comes from a self focus, there is abortion, pornography, the women leaving the home to become "their own person", as well as many other popular sins that are seem as normal courses in these last days.
With the acceptance of disrespect and lack of hospitality, comes every other sin imaginable. When deference to others is seen as weak and foolish, so goes the manners and love.
Welcome to the end times in which most people think nearly entirely about themselves and their own desires, there is no room for deference to anyone else.
Genesis 6:5,11,12 ...'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.'
Judges 21:25 " 25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
Matthew 24:37-39
"37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."
The people of the land no longer see themselves under anyone, they defer to no one and value no one. Everything that is done, is in preference to their own desires.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."
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