A Full Plate

Do you remember the last family reunion that you attended? Was there food to comfort everyone? Some of Mom's apple pie? Some of Aunt Alice's delicious butter cake with chocolate frosting? Grandma's egg noodles? It was an opportunity to fill your plate with a mound of memories and goodness. It also happens at the buffet restaurant, the church supper, the company picnic, any place that we can help ourselves! We are woefully inept at self-control. There's seems to be a need to fill our plates with all the stuff we shouldn't eat or with "a little bit of everything" so as not to offend the creators of each dish. We do not heed Mom's warning not to put more on our plate than we can eat . We no longer worry about the starving children of the world who somehow benefited by our "cleaning our plate". Mom's attempted to chide us into trying new things and to make us grateful for what we have by saying, "Try it, you'll like it" or "you oughta be glad you have something to eat, there are many who don't". The temptations are too great, our self-control is flagging. We fill our plates beyond their capacity. Then we attempt to eat it all!

Life has become that same full plate for many of us. The plate is not usually filled with precious memories and goodness. Instead our plate is full of financial woes, health concerns, relationship issues and the welfare of those around us. Actually our plates are so full there is no possible way we could ever "clean" them. We are so full of trying things we don't like and then being stuck with them that we don't know how to cope. We make valiant attempts to stuff it all in but the plate's so full it overflows and ends up all over the place. Spilled all over us, on those around us, and on unsuspecting souls we come near everyday. What a mess!

The plate seems to have a flexible capacity that can hold endless mounds of stuff. We make attempts to "clean" a small place on our plate for "something good" just to be frustrated by someone slinging a pile of something that we don't like and don't want in the space we "cleaned". We long to be among the "empty platers" of the world. We would gladly starve to have a "clean plate". On the contrary, we usually carry our full plate everywhere we go. We can make no time to digest it's contents instead we are too busy, filling our plates or letting someone fill our plates for us becomes our normality. There are people around us who are like the impertinent server in a cafeteria line who slings a spoonful of something on our plate and says, "Keep Moving!". We have no intention of eating it but it takes up a valuable space on our plate. This is what seems to keep our plate full, a world of impertinent servers.

Do you remember a time when you were grateful for having a full plate? Do you ever wish for a full plate? Or has your plate become so full you an no longer carry it? Has the weight become so heavy that you stoop from it's fullness? Are you constantly looking for someone to help share your load? Look up! Help has always been there for you! All you need to do is reach out and accept it. In Matthew 11:28-29, Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and overburdened, and I will give you rest! Put on my yoke and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Let God scrape that stuff off your plate! Have a grateful and forgiving heart! Be gentle and humble. Love God! Love one another!