📌 It’s Okay To Leave the Spoon in the Bottom of the Sink
Question:
Some people feel guilty because preachers often say things like, “Pursue excellence,” or, “If you’re going to do a job, do it well.”
So here’s my struggle: whenever I’m doing everyday chores—like dishes—I’m either rushing and missing things, or I’m trying to do it perfectly and it takes so long that I never get back to what God actually called me to do… study, pray, listen, and grow.
And honestly, if I don’t do those chores perfectly, people around me assume I’m slacking. Then I try harder, the guilt gets heavier, and before I know it, the books stay unread and the kitchen gets dirty again anyway.
How should I think about this?
Is it wrong to not do everything “excellently”?
🔹ANSWER:
Excellence is not the same thing as perfection.
And it is CERTAINLY not the same thing as being busy all day doing things God did not assign to you.
Most believers confuse these three things:
• Perfection → doing everything “just right,” with no mistakes.
• Performance → trying to meet people’s expectations.
• Excellence → doing what God asked, the way God asked, with the grace He gives.
What you’re describing is one thing:
👉 Performance-based excellence, not God-based excellence.
And performance will always steal from your calling.
⸻
🌿 1. Your primary calling is not dishes — it’s destiny.
Your real assignment — study, pray, write, listen, teach — is not optional.
It is your stewardship before God.
Dishes?
Those are secondary tasks of daily life.
If you spend all your time doing secondary things excellently, you’ll have no time for the primary thing.
That’s not excellence.
That’s misalignment.
⸻
🌿 2. Everyday chores do NOT require “ministerial excellence.”
You’re not ministering when you’re loading the dishwasher.
You’re just living.
And living does not require perfection.
This is where guilt gets its open door: by pretending that God requires spiritual-level excellence in every natural task.
He doesn’t.
Jesus didn’t fold every blanket perfectly in Capernaum.
Paul didn’t cobble shoes with apostolic precision.
Martha thought excellence meant cleaning — Mary knew excellence meant presence.
Who did Jesus honor?
Mary.
Not because the dishes weren’t important…
but because they weren’t eternal.
⸻
🌿 3. When you try to be excellent in ALL things, you become excellent in NOTHING.
Because your energy, time, focus, and call get divided into a hundred pieces.
Your calling requires:
• depth
• quiet
• unhurried thought
• space
• margin
• spiritual focus
Dishes require:
• 10 minutes
• a wipe
• and the ability to not care if you missed a fork 😂
⸻
🌿 4. The guilt you feel is not from God.
Guilt in this area:
• doesn’t correct
• doesn’t clarify
• doesn’t guide
• doesn’t give peace
It accuses.
That’s not the Holy Spirit.
That’s the enemy using a tiny thing (dishes!) to interrupt a large thing (your calling).
⸻
🌿 5. People around you who expect perfection in chores… are not your Master.
Their opinion is not your assignment.
Their comments are not your commission.
If someone around you:
• equates your spiritual value with how well you do dishes
• criticizes you for missing a spoon
• thinks your call is “slacking” because the kitchen isn’t spotless
…they are thinking naturally, not spiritually.
We love them…
but they cannot define what excellence looks like for a prophet, a teacher, or a watchman.
⸻
🌿 6. True excellence is this:
Do the right thing, at the right time, with the right heart.
Not:
• do EVERYTHING
• do it PERFECTLY
• do it FAST
• keep EVERYONE happy
That’s slavery, not excellence.
⸻
🌿 So what do you do? — Here are practical suggestions
✔ 1. Give yourself permission to do daily chores adequately, not excellently.
Let “good enough” be good enough.
✔ 2. Set a small chore window (10–15 minutes)
Then stop — even if something’s left undone.
This protects your calling.
✔ 3. Reframe the task: “This is not ministry.”
This resets your emotional expectations.
✔ 4. When guilt comes, say out loud:
“My excellence is measured in obedience, not chores.”
✔ 5. And remind yourself:
Some people are called to keep perfect houses.
You are called to keep a perfect heart.
Very different assignments.
⸻
Final truth for your heart:
You do not owe God a perfect kitchen.
You owe Him your calling.
He did not anoint you to scrub dishes.
He anointed you to hear Him, speak His Word, write His revelations, and shepherd hearts.
Dishes matter.
But destiny matters more.
🦋
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✿⊰ B e l i e v e ⊰✿
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Eagle’s Way Ministries 