It's More Than Just a Sandwich

Doing What You Can with What You Have

If you’re like me, you want everything to be just right when you’re entertaining guests. The food has to be pretty; the house has to be clean, and the table has to be set just right. So—before hosting, you spend time planning a menu, cleaning the house and making sure everything is perfect.

If you’re like this, then that also means when you get an unexpected call from a friend, and she says she’s dropping by for a minute when you haven’t had a chance to clean or prepare, you panic. I totally understand because I have the tendency to do the same as well.

But, I want to challenge you, while also challenging myself, to break that cycle of perfectionism because there are so many blessings to soak up during those unexpected visits.

Because life doesn’t happen when we’ve planned for it. It doesn’t happen when our homes are spotless and the clutter is perfectly cleared, and it definitely doesn’t wait for us to have a five-course meal set perfectly in fancy dishes.

Life doesn’t happen when we’ve planned for it. It doesn’t happen when our homes are spotless and the clutter is perfectly cleared...

Life comes at us unexpectedly. It happens when the shelves are dusty, the sink is full of dirty dishes and when the floors haven’t been swept in days. Life happens when you haven't yet had a moment to take a shower or fix your makeup, or when the kids are sick. It's when the pipes bust causing you to have to remove everything out of your nicely organized cabinets and throw it wherever you can find a place to make room for the plumber.

That's life, and when it happens, what you need most is that unexpected phone call from a friend.

Life is about having that friend who knows you need a short break, who offers to come take the kids out for ice cream or play basketball in the driveway with them while you can take just a moment for a quick breather. It’s about having people who love you for you—the people who don’t care if your bed has been made or if there’s a week’s worth of dirty laundry waiting to be washed.

It’s about having people who love you for you...

And—when you make that friend and she’s with you at your table and you haven’t had the time to plan a menu or something pretty to plate—just walk to the pantry, grab some bread and make her a sandwich.

Because it’s not just a sandwich.

It’s memories made. Needs being met. Connection. Warmth. Growth. It’s a full belly, and happy heart, and I promise those things are so much more valuable than anything that looks pretty in a photograph.