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Always a Full Plate

by Blair Bailey in Faith on Wednesday, November 11, 2009 6:00 AM

My husband often recounts a funny story about meals in the Army. It started with his own father’s Army tale about how hungry he would be after a full day of training.

At mealtime he would walk his tray down the line, accepting every single item because he was so famished! When he got to the end of the line where someone was waiting to serve the fruit cocktail, all the spots on his tray were full. “Just put it right there on top,” he would say.

So when my husband faced the fruit cocktail server with a full tray during his own Army service, he laughed as he mimicked his father’s words, “Just put it right there on top!”

Planning Our Plates

As mothers we frequently feel like our own plate is full. We have our life compartmentalized and get stressed out when our “meat” gets mixed with our “potatoes.”  We deal with daily struggles in many different areas:  housework, discipline, schoolwork, illness, and bills.  Then, when we think there is nothing more we can handle on our plate, God gives us that “fruit cocktail” that messes up a well-planned meal.

I wrote a few months ago about dealing with unemployment. Our life was feeling fairly comfortable early this year as my husband started a new job working from home. So when he found himself unemployed for nearly 6 months, my “compartments” went all astray! I was not ready for the “fruit cocktail” to be placed on top of my carefully organized tray.

Talk about overwhelming!  I was trying to help him search for jobs, care for the house and kids, handle the financial issues, and manage part-time jobs for both of us.  So I was thrilled when he was finally offered a great new position to start this fall.

Now my compartments would finally be back to normal again.  Or would they?

New Life, New Challenges

My husband’s new job was now presenting our family with a difficult workweek of over 60 hours, one of my good friends was dying of cancer, and I was facing the possibility of my toddler needing open-heart surgery next year. This wasn’t quite what I envisioned about how things would look when we made it through unemployment!

What I’ve come to realize through this season in life is that I am probably always going to have a full plate.  Sometimes it will be a neatly organized plate, but still full.  And other times I may be overwhelmed with the “fruit cocktail” that covers all the other areas and feels like it will push me over the edge.

But God won’t let us fall over the edge.  He will give us the grace to deal with our trials, and sometimes, maybe after the trial is over, we will realize that the fruit cocktail really was sweet, even when it was mixed with the green beans and mashed potatoes!  That hardship can bring a family closer together and closer to God, just as that time of unemployment did for us.

My new goal, when faced with a struggle that feels insurmountable, is to realize that even though my plate feels full, I will be able to handle it with God’s help.

I’ll aim to accept my trials in love and tell God: Just put that fruit cocktail right on top!

—Blair Bailey is a Catholic wife and homeschooling mother of 3 who lives in Texas.  She chronicles her family life at Blair’s Blessings.

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Jesus is the Divine Wellspring

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Flowers for the Feast