Leading And Loving It Sampel

My first official job was waitressing at a pizza place. One Saturday, I was waiting on a traveling family who placed an order for the strangest concoction I’d received... green olives, pineapple, Canadian bacon, onion, sausage, anchovy, and artichokes. Not a typical, quickly made pizza.

Twenty-five minutes later I grabbed my hot pads and headed over to the table of the famished family. As I got to their table I tripped, dropping their pizza face down on the ground in front of them.

Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

That’s just like ministry. We want to do it all and remain balanced, but often what is most important ends up face-down on the floor.

*Warning: Massive Amounts of Metaphor Ahead!*

We all have different sized plates in life when it comes to our time and schedules. Some people have saucer-sized plates. They can fit a few finger foods on there, but that’s about it. It is like those tiny plates at Bridal showers that fit some grapes and a cupcake. That’s it, nothing more.

Others have gigantic sized platters. Platters a twenty-one pound turkey is served on for Thanksgiving dinner. They can heap huge amounts of food on there; none spills off. They have an endless amount of energy and an amazing ability to handle lots of stuff on their platters. It’s astounding how much these people can handle.

Then there’s us, with our medium sized plates. Quite a bit of food fits on there, but pretty quickly stuff starts to slip over the edges. We walk a fine line between being full and being overstuffed. Oh how we wish to be platter girls.

As important as determining the size of your plate is determining what kinds of things are filling that plate. There are seasons of life where your plate is consumed with playdates, carpool lines, soccer games, and helping with homework. Then there are seasons where your plate is more evenly divided between ministry, teenagers, and some semblance of a personal life. Yes, the contents of our plates will change and shift as we walk through the different seasons of life. Whether we are saucer, plate, or platter women, we need to know how and where to set limits so that things don’t slip over the edges.

Before you get in the truck: Make yourself a “stop doing” list. What do you need to take off of your plate?