Women who put effort into building community rightly have a special beauty. This is what it looks like to be her!
The Beauty of a Woman Who Works at Building Community
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will be full of warm welcome. It may not come easily to her as experience, circumstance, and even personality can stand as challenges to overcome but there will be a desire for and a growth in warm welcome that extends the welcome of Christ (Romans 15:7).
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will consider others more important than herself (Philippians 2:3). She will showcase this by looking “also to the interest of others” (Philippians 2:4). She will rejoice in opportunities to be inconvenienced, understanding that these inconveniences are gifts from the gracious hand of God that desires a heart of compassion and mercy (Luke 10:25-37).
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will be hospitable. She will seek to swing wide the doors of heart and home. Her neighborhood will find respite within the walls of her home. Her church will find refuge in the conversation and encouragement she offers.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will be generous. She will willingly give of her resources for the good of others and the glory of Christ. This woman will be filled with generosity of time, talent, and money. She will consider it a joy to share with others.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will not allow divisive or cruel speech in her presence. She will uplift others, weep with them, and rejoice with them. She will maintain confidences whenever safe to do so. She will be quick to praise and slow to criticize.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will be prayerful. She will seek information about others so that she is able to bring them before the throne of grace, never for the purpose of slander. She will pray for opportunities to make an impact and to be impacted. She will pray for community growth and for others to gain a similar passion.
She will love the church and seek to ensure everyone finds the welcome of Christ when they encounter His body.
She will forsake cliques and will instead seek that her close relationships build up the greater community.
She will look for ways to bless others.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will be willing to call out sin in other believers’ lives. She will not desire the false unity that comes with issues not dealt with but will seek reconciliation and genuinely holy living.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will not be afraid of someone else calling her out. She will seek those relationships which will encourage truth telling, believing holiness of more importance than comfort.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will seek opportunities to bring others into the community of faith by sharing the gospel and living in an attractive manner. She will believe in the power of the gospel and will seek the boldness and gentleness the Holy Spirit gives.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will live a life truly dedicated to grace.
A woman who is truly dedicated to building community will live a life truly dedicated to Christ.
Related: Inspiration for Why You Should Bother with Hospitality
Grace For Community Building
Is that what your life looks like? That certainly isn’t a description of my life, though I wish it was!
Instead my life is often filled with the pride that makes inviting people into my real, messy life feel difficult and makes receiving honest critique feel like an attack. My life is often filled with selfishness and frustration at inconvenience and too much concern for my to-do list.
And this is the beauty in that – Christ is sufficient; we don’t have to be. We strive to live holy lives, dedicated to Christ and the community He would have us building. We recognize our own faults and challenges, we confess them to the Lord and we seek the help of our brothers and sisters. We embrace our differences, forsake our sins, and seek to grow together toward Christ.
Related: Grace In Imperfect Hospitality
We have an opportunity to pursue holiness and welcome together. We can prayerfully seek the good of our community and do so with confidence that God can and will work through even our feeble efforts.
May God be glorified in our weakness as we reveal His strength (2 Corinthians 12:9)
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Hi, I'm Katie!
I help Christians get past their social struggles and feelings of isolation and loneliness by exploring all the skills we need to build community. I'm so glad you are here! Read more
Thank you for sharing this ‘mirror’. What a great way to keep fessed up and keep moving intentionally toward the goal of practicing hospitality. If you are able to create a printable version, I would love to have something concise to keep in my prayer journal. I want to keep these characteristics before Him in prayer and allow God’s Spirit to examine my heart and show me what area to allow Him to change. I have learned late in life that true change only comes when I lay myself before the feet of Jesus and allow Him to miraculously perform surgery. It is a painful process but it produces genuine, effective fruit – all while drawing me ever closer to His side.
Blessings to you in 2019!
I LOVE the idea of turning this into a printable and that would be my pleasure to do! I will try to update this post with a printable version within the next 2 weeks or so 🙂
And you are so right! When we want to see ourselves conformed more to the image of Christ, it happens through prayer and willingly laying ourselves down. Though it is painful, it is for our good and God is always faithful to meet us in our submission and change us. <3 Love to hear your heart!
I have always enjoyed hospitality and welcoming people into the neighborhood. Probably because we were in the Air Force and moved so much. Now I have friends all over the world.
that is a great benefit of being willing to open your home when you move often!
These are some great point. To build true community, we need to be loving, and kind. But, I think to build a true community we must also be open and transparent– willing to share our struggles with others.
Absolutely! If we aren’t willing to share with others, they won’t be willing to share with us and no real community will be formed!
I was always to scared to invite people over to my home. Not because I didn’t want people there, but our location wasn’t very easy to get to. About 2 months ago, we moved into a new house in town and I am looking forward to having people over more often. I hosted a vision board party a couple Saturday’s ago and it was a lot of fun. I am a little rusty on my hostess etiquette but it seemed like everyone enjoyed their evening. I am looking forward to hosting more get togethers soon!
that’s awesome!! It can be easy to get out of the swing of hosting and not jump back in so I’m so glad you are getting your feet wet early on with your new home! I’m sure it will be a blessing to you and those you host!
I thought this was a beautiful and thoughtful list! Especially interesting that we might need to call people out and allow others to do that to us. Usually friendship is seen as letting those go by and being accepting but I’ve seen that as not being truly loving. Great post!
Amen! I even had a hard time writing that but it is truly the beautiful fruit of friendship and relationship. I heard a sermon recently from Garrett Kell and he asked the question – if you are upset when someone confronts you about a sin, what do you care about more than holiness? I found that incredibly convicting and it has become a practical prayer point in my own life! <3
Thank you for sharing this beautiful and inspiring post. I am lucky to have been welcomed into a new community recently, and I am so grateful!
I love that!! It is the best feeling to be included and welcomed and see real life examples of this!
Simple but powerful reminders. I love how Scripture shows us how to live but also keeps us in check by revealing areas we could always work on. This is an area that I have slowly begun to “let other people in”. I can post pictures and be transparent on camera…. but inviting people over to physically come into “my world”…. different story!
Yes!!! We are not virtual people so we can’t interact only virtually and be filled but it is hard to let people in to our real, unedited lives! So thankful Scripture meets us where we are and moves us toward Christ-likeness!
Katie, I really needed to read this today! Thank you so much for reminding me of the woman I hope to be.
Thats why I wrote it too! 😉 I needed the reminder! Thank you for reading!
Oh my goodness as I was reading the first part I kept agreeing but also feeling pretty inadequate as I fall short in so many of those!! Loved how you shared so many of the same feelings I have in the second part. Thank God for his strength in my weakness. I long to build community and am grateful for grace to do so. Great post!!
Amen!! I was thinking the same thing as I researched to write this post! I can’t do this! I fall short in every area! But then I was reminded – God’s strength works in my weakness! He is the one who gives the grace to be this kind of woman and the one who gets the glory in it. So thankful for the grace that covers us!