It's not my fault

One of my memories of childhood was that when it was a holiday, the fancy dishes got busted out.

We didn't have a lot, but for a time, before they got broken and had to be thrown away, my mom had these dishes that I always thought were a bit odd.  And I was thinking tonight about my affinity with the "good dishes" when I realized that it wasn't my fault.  I was raised that way, so I get to blame my mom.

This is a photo of what I remember good dishes to be:

Yup, the good stuff had wheat on it.  I think my mom got them from saving Gold Strike Stamps.  We weren't a green stamp family, we were a Gold Strike family.  I remember my mom trundling us into the Gold Strike Stamp showroom and the lady going through the books page by page to make sure no blank spots were there.  Funny what you remember.  I'm not sure where the dishes came from, but they were my mom's; they were for special occasions; after they were washed, they went back into the box.

So I have this thing about good dishes.  Until I started writing it, I hadn't thought about it much.  I just know that when company comes, you use the good dishes.  A couple of years ago, I got blessed with my own set of "good dishes".  I got them used, some were new though, and they're still in the box, for the most part.  I had service for 12 or so.  Ish.  I think I was missing a couple of salad plates and bowls.  

Was.

The good dishes collection grew yesterday with an incredible KSL find.  My own set of good dishes really didn't have any serving bowls.  I have a set of baking dishes, small, medium, and large.  I had a gravy pitcher.  And a water pitcher.  And plates and coffee cups and the like.  There was a butter dish and a set of large salt and pepper shakers.  And 12 large water goblets.

That was until yesterday afternoon.  Here's the addition:

A set of 12 turned out to be a set of 14, with 16 water goblets.  The serving bowls I thought there were just one of wound up being three of each.  In the back you can see two covered baking dishes.  A cutting board was included, as well as two platters.  And yes, that's a crock pot that matches the whole shebang.  The tablecloth is made of heavy material.  This isn't cheap stuff.  But I only paid $140 for all of it.

I suppose if one has good flatware for 24 that one ought to have good dishes for as many.  I'm expecting to host a dinner party in the near future.    And I find myself facing a problem:  I think I now have too much.  

I'm working on a sermon for next week about loving God with our everything and I'm cognizant that I used to have a stuff problem.  I don't want to have a stuff problem again because my stuff problem got me into a lot of debt and because of that I had to live through five years of hell.  So no more stuff. I also know that I used to use stuff to make me feel better.  Stuff doesn't make me feel better anymore.  People do.  And I'm blessed to have good people in my life these days to go along with the difficult people, too.

I can't and won't let stuff take God's place in my life.  Having said that, it's seemed that I've been abundantly blessed with stuff in the last little bit.  So my way of thinking is that if I have it, then I need to use it.  It's the same way with my Christmas dishes.  I enjoy them and I feel blessed that I can share them with my church family during our annual holiday lunch, too.  

A lot of Jesus' ministry was done over a meal.  I'm hopeful that a lot of good times and fellowship will be done with the things God has blessed me with this past week.  I have that ginormous smoker.  I have a big grill.  I have a big house.  And now I have a big set of dishes and the flatware to match.

I saw something the other day that said something to the fact that when you're blessed with more, build a bigger table.  I have plenty of room for tables (and a place where I'm allowed to borrow them as the occasion arises).  I now, thanks to God's blessing and provision, have the ability to set more places at table.