Leftover Us

One of my sons is not too fond of leftovers.
He always enjoyed whatever I cooked; however, he wanted it for one night only.
Even if it was his favorite meal, leftovers just did not appeal to him.
In all honesty, we never really had leftovers that often when everyone was home.

With five growing children, it was really a matter of making a meal stretch.
I was trying to think about what would feed all seven of us.
I was trying to plan meals so that everyone would have enough.
That was a lot easier to do when the children were young.

When they got older, I could not seem to keep food in the house.
At that time, we went through thirteen gallons of milk every week.
Anyone who knows our family, knows that is true.
Those were the days when I pushed two shopping carts at the grocery store.

As my children went off to college, the grocery bill was smaller while they were away.
Whenever there were breaks from school, I stocked up on food again.
As the older ones moved out on their own, I did not need to buy as much food as before.
We began to have leftovers for the first time.

My husband loves leftovers, especially if the leftovers happen to be my homemade soup.
He enjoys having soup the next day with a large salad.
My oldest daughter just asked me how I stretched our food when everyone was home.
She could not believe that certain recipes she makes now, fed all of us then.

It is just my husband and I at home when our youngest daughter is in college.
Every night I make a large salad to go with our dinner.
I make it especially large so that there will be leftovers.
That delicious salad is usually my lunch the next day.

The word, leftover, can sometimes have a bad connotation.
Leftovers bring to mind something that is not wanted.
Imagine a sale table at a particular store.
Items are chosen yet there are always items that are leftover.

Unless they are significantly discounted, those leftover items may stay there a while.
Sometimes, the leftover item is not what you had in mind at all.
You feel as if you had to settle for second best.
You are disappointed that you did not get to choose from the entire selection.

Do you ever think about leftovers when it has nothing to do with food?
What about leftover time?
What about leftover attention?
What about leftover us?

We go about our days at a frenetic pace.
We have our lists.
We have our commitments.
We prioritize them.

However, our priorities are not always correct.
We tend to put certain things above other things.
The other things tend to get us after everything else has spent us.
The other things get the leftover us.

The other things often are our family.
We do and do, and go and go all day long and want to come home and relax.
Just when we sit down with our cup of tea, someone needs us for something.
We are tired and feel as if we deserve the time alone.

If we took the time to notice that our spouse feels second best, we would act differently.
If we took the time to see the disappointment on our child’s face, we would think twice.
If we took the time to see the things that do not matter have taken precedence, we would stop.
If we took the time to see that we serve a leftover us every day, we would be shocked.

A son honors his father, and a slave his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you priests who show contempt for my name. “But you ask, ‘How have we shown contempt for your name?’ “By offering defiled food on my altar. “But you ask, ‘How have we defiled you?’ “By saying that the Lord’s table is contemptible. When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty…“When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations. (Malachi 1:6-8,13,14)

We not only give leftovers to our family, we also give leftovers to God.
God deserves the first of everything we have, not what is leftover after we do everything else.
God gets our leftover time, our leftover prayers, and our leftover attention.
God’s people did the same thing when they brought Him blemished offerings.

Try offering them to your governor! God says.
Try indeed.
Our priorities are not in order when we put anything before God.
We cannot keep our priorities straight on our own; we need God’s help.

God should be first.
Family should be second.
Everything else comes after that.
Even we, ourselves, come after all of that.

We know this to be true in our hearts.
It’s just that sometimes we are so tired.
Sometimes we need a little alone time.
We do need to have blank spaces on our calendars; some of those blank spaces should be for us.

Leftovers can be delicious but they can also be dry and unappealing.
We know that to be true with our food.
Do we know that it is true with ourselves as well?
What needs to be removed from our schedules to insure that those we love do not get leftovers?

God deserves the best, the choicest, the first of all we give Him.
Our families deserve more that leftover us.
We need to make sure we are not spreading ourselves too thin.
Leftover us should be the exception not the rule.