From the Home Place

November 28, 2025

The weather man is talking about being in the 40’s today, we’ll take it.

Well, if you hosted Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, today you start dealing with leftovers. That can range from a sandwich or two, to trying to figure out what to do with a refrigerator stuffed to the top with leftovers.

The problem with leftovers is that there usually isn’t enough of any one item to serve all of the relatives who are still at your house. You have a bit of ham, some turkey and stuffing, enough potatoes, green bean casserole, and sweet potatoes so that everyone can have some, but not everyone have the same thing. And then there’s that turkey carcass that looks like the buzzards have been picking at it. It’s probably in the refrigerator in the garage, along with all of the pickles, olives and celery sticks. Oh ya, down in the bottom tray of the fridge is still some of your homemade dinner rolls that everyone fussed over how good they “were.”

In the garage fridge, is portions of most of the desserts you spent hours and a small fortune on, along with some stuff you aren’t quite sure “what that is.” Yep, today, we all get to eat leftovers. But you know, I like being able to pick and choose as I wish, make a sandwich and sit by myself somewhere quiet to enjoy my leftovers. The problem is, that this same meal may need to be repeated for the next two or three days. Or we put in freezer bags and find it again next year, just in time to throw it all out and start over.

You see the problem with leftovers is that they usually are just that, left over. Not as good as the original, but still good enough. And that my friends, is how God feels when we serve Him our leftovers. You know, that couple of dollars that are left over after you have spent the rest of your paycheck getting ready for Thanksgiving. The time you have left over after you have worked all week, gone shopping or played golf all day Saturday, if there is an hour left, you give that to God, wishing you were still in bed!

We American Christians are extremely good at giving God what is left-over, but we sure hope He always gives us the best He has to offer, especially when we have a “serious” need. To make any relationship real, we must spend time with someone. That seems to be the number one thing we just never have “enough of” to spend with God.

He gives us twenty-fours each and every day, but we are so busy that we can only find a few minutes here or there to visit with Him. We have so many things that “I just have to get done today” that we can’t sacrifice any time for devotions right now, maybe I’ll have a few minutes later = leftovers!

What ever happened to giving God our “first fruits” instead of what we have left over, if anything at all? Just chew on it for a minute, how much time do I spend watching TV, but no time for God? How much of my finances do I spend on personal wants, but I don’t have enough to give a proper tithe to God? How often is my schedule so full of things “I want to do” that I don’t have time to serve His kingdom?

Loved ones, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a long “holiday season.” May we each end our year with a resolution that we are going to treat God like our honored guest around our place this season. We will give Him the time it takes to develop a deeper friendship with Him. We will give Him the tithe that we want to give instead of the left-over scrapings. We will invite Him to walk with us through this busy time of the year. We will not allow other things, events and even people to interrupt this space in our walk with our Heavenly Father!

May we each give our Lord and Savior the best that we have to offer first, and then perhaps we will notice that there is plenty left over for everyone and everything else!

Getting rid of leftovers with you, Neal