The Grace & Cherish Podcast: Recent Episodes
Grace & Cherish
Welcome to the Grace and Cherish podcast, where we explore the role of hospitality in our homes...and our lives. This is a podcast about hospitality, and, it’s about formation. Let's explore the role of hospitality and who we are becoming, from our homes and relationships, to our culture and communities, even in our interior design - we are constantly being formed into someone, the question is: Who?
It’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed when making decisions for your home. The options seem never ending when it comes to paint, furniture, flooring or fabric. How do I know which one is best for me and my home? How do I get past the overwhelm I feel when trying to decide? This episode shares a few tips to help you lessen the overwhelm and make decisions you feel good about.
In this episode we explore:
- 4 questions to help you be intentional in your decision making and lessen overwhelm when making decisions at home and in life.
This week is the final episode of the Lent series. Listen in as we consider the role of self-examination in our faith as we end
In this episode we explore:
- What is self-examination and how does it form us?
- The goal of self-examination is about communion not perfection
- Self-examination that leads us deeper into the heart of Christ
Lent is a season of preparation. And today, we’re talking about the Woman at the well, and more specifically, the community she came from as we consider what it means to “prepare” for Christ.
In this episode we explore:
- The interaction between Jesus, the Samaritan woman and her community
- What it means to prepare for Christ
- Jesus call to “open your eyes and look at the fields because they are ready for harvest”
This week we talk about prayer and the challenge to be truly honest in our prayer.
In this episode we explore:
- Being honest and vulnerable in prayer, even when it’s painful.
- My grandma’s influence on me through modeling prayer
- The gift of communion through prayer
This week we talk about how we are formed through fasting, and have a discussion of fasting and feast days through the Lent season. We also discuss how fasting can lead us to serve our community and are reminded that fasting isn’t about gaining God’s love, because we already have it.
In this episode we explore:
- Fasting and feast days throughout Lent
- How fasting can help you also be more aware and present
- The connection between fasting and communion with God and your community
This week we explore the role of service as one of the themes of Lent and how practicing service during this season forms us into people of love.
In this episode we explore:
- Looking at service creatively as we expand our ideas of "how" we can serve
Just as our homes can be vessels that form us, so can seasons like Lent.
Lent is an opportunity to practice self-examination, fasting, prayer, service, discipline and preparation - each purposed to help us move closer toward becoming people who reflect the image of God.
At Grace & Cherish we encourage hospitality as a lifestyle because we believe that a hospitable life reflects the hospitable heart of God. And Lent is such a wonderful opportunity to draw nearer to that heart. So, for the next several weeks, we’ll consider how observing Lent can shape us.
Throughout Lent:
- The short weekly episodes will focus on one area or theme for the season.
- There will be a reflection question, or two, to engage you and help you slow down and think deeply, and commune with Christ.
In today’s episode we’re talking about people. Specifically, people experiencing homelessness and the unique lessons learned about hospitality from them.
In this episode we explore:
- The importance of relationships and the lessons learned from people experiencing homelessness
- Being content people so we don’t become entitled people
- The power of vulnerability as learned through washing feet
Episode Summary We’ve talked about our homes and their role in our personal formation, so the next two episodes focus on the design process in our entryway project in our previous home in Portland. Part one focuses on the inspiration and purpose of the design and how it relates to one’s formation.
In this episode we explore:
- The design process starting with defining the need and other important questions to ask when beginning a new project (see reflection questions)
- The details of the Portland entryway project including design tips and tricks such as:
Horizontal lines helping a space feel wider
Paying attention to visual weight distribution
Anchoring - what is anchoring your space
Blog post with photos: Portland Entryway Project reveal
We’ve talked about our homes and their role in our personal formation, so the next two episodes focus on the design process in our entryway project in our previous home in Portland. Part one focuses on the inspiration and purpose of the design and how it relates to one’s formation.
In this episode we explore:
- God as the One who welcomes
- Making the entryway personal (see link to a previous blog post here.)
There are many ways our homes can participate in the spiritual formation process. What does spiritual formation have to do with hospitality? Well everything. In order to be hospitable, to serve and welcome other people motivated by love and care requires we know true Love and true Welcome from, as the Word says, the One who loved us first. There isn’t enough grit or hustle in the world to help us strive our way toward being hospitable people. That strength comes from the Holy Spirit alone.
In this episode we explore:
- Negative space in interior design and how to incorporate it in your home
- Importance of practicing silence and solitude
- Showing hospitality from a place of “being” before doing
Our homes are places full of opportunity for relationship, for love, for teaching and growing and so much more. I believe our homes can also be vessels for our spiritual formation, but do we view them that way?
This episode is all about spiritual formation and interior design - specifically how focal points can help us learn to abide. I am passionate about interior design, and I believe beauty points to hope, so join me as we consider how something like interior design can help us become people of Love and show hospitality in a world that desperately needs it.
In this episode we explore:
- The connection between spiritual formation and interior design through “focal points”
- What is a focal point in interior design? Why is it necessary?
- Receiving hospitality from God
- The importance of abiding
Visit the website for a specific example of using focal point sin your home as a reminder to abide: Ep. 5 Bringing it Home exercise
Isaiah 58, a passage known to be about fasting and God’s definition of true fasting, has also significantly influenced my understanding of hospitality as being something done both in one’s home and out of it.
In this episode we explore:
- How Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25 can expand our understanding of showing hospitality and becoming people of Love
- Examples of opportunities to show hospitality during our ordinary days
This episode is part one of a two part series where we explore hospitality as something we can offer both in our homes and outside of them. In part one, we’re considering what it looks like to show hospitality at home for the guests you invite in and for the people you live with. I’ll share three common barriers to showing hospitality in our homes along with a few questions to get you thinking deeply and creatively.
In this episode we explore:
- Becoming people of welcome
- Preparing for guests through prayer
- 3 common barriers to showing hospitality
- Creating a hospitable home for those living in it (see questions in the reflection section of the show notes: www.graceandcherish.com)
When we hear the word hospitality we often think about action. And we should. Hospitality is an action, it is something we do, that we offer, that we show to others. It is also something we receive. Both are important when engaging hospitality. But before both of these things, we must consider our heart posture.
In this episode we explore:
- Our heart posture toward God and others when showing hospitality
- The importance of receiving and giving in hospitality
- How Jesus showed hospitality to others
- Encouragement (and challenge) to consider how we receive God’s hospitality
What is hospitality really about? And, how does it impact who you are becoming? Today’s episode explores the unique relationship between hospitality and our personal formation - making a case for why hospitality is necessary in all of our lives.