What Do You Bring To The Table?
Greetings Ladies & Gents,
Hoping that this message finds you well and healthy. It's safe to say we are officially rolling through the holiday season. Feels like Halloween was literally a week ago. Yet here we are getting turkeys prepped and tables set for folks to come together to fellowship. Speaking of tables, I thought I'd take a moment to leave you all with a quick post asking what it is that you bring to your respective tables. Clearly we aren't just talking about food here, so this is a question that can continue being asked throughout the entire year.
Thanksgiving is of course a time where we come together with family/friends to make memories and give thanks for the many things we have in our lives. However, we also know that many folks are simply looking forward to the several meals that will be provided that day to fill their stomachs and make them happy. People act similarly when they are going to hang out with someone or go on a date with a person they've come to like. They have certain expectations about what the other person is going to bring to the table of sorts. That's all well and good to have those standards, but the follow up question here is what things exactly are you bringing to the table?
You know how you're going to have those folks that come to the house simply to be gluttonous and fill their guts up with your food, but they've done nothing on their end to bring it all together. Same things goes for when a person has a checklist for all the things they want for a person to bring to a table yet they can't name 3 things that they will be providing on their end. It's a wack way to be and definitely not how you want to be presenting yourself to others. We hear all this talk about "I'm more than a snack" or "Yea, I'm a meal" but do you really bring anything other than the talking? Because that's surely not going to fill anyone up or meet any needs.
Personally, I feel that I bring some things to the table that can be useful(good listener, humor, prayer partner, charm, words of advice through personal experiences, etc). All of that is well and good, but that doesn't mean I stop there. I believe that there's plenty more traits that I could give to those in my life if I just took the time for more self reflection to see what my unique strengths are. Like anyone else, I also have weaknesses that may hinder the table with Jordan experience(smart mouth at times, occasionally getting defensive, not communicating as effectively as I'm capable of, etc.). But the key is that I know these things and they can all be worked on.
Don't get stuck in the "That's just me" mindset because you've already hindered your growth. It's already a lost cause because you're content with where you currently are. That takes some nerve to do especially when you're expecting the horse and carriage at the table from those around you. So as I said earlier, it's all well and good to want things provided at the table, just make sure you aren't empty handed. What happens if both of you show up with nothing to offer? I guess everyone would go home hungry.