For Sunday, February 24: Hands and Feet

Yesterday my family and I, with a group of friends, helped pack meals for kids all over the world who are starving and impoverished. It's a fantastic organization doing amazing things and inviting people to participate. You can check them out by clicking here. Today's quote is true of me, perhaps you as well. As I have gotten older, seen a few more things, made a few trips to some slums, and gained a better understanding of what scriptures like James 1:27 mean I have discovered that if I keep my hands and feet to myself not only do people lose out on what I can offer but I lose out on being enriched. My hands and feet are not my own, they are meant to be extended and to help promote healing and life. Since the lesson is so important I've made it part of my duty as a parent to teach this to my redheads early on on their lives so that they develop and cultivate a life that extends itself on behalf of the "least of these." I believe when we use our hands and feet for healing and life we then are allowing our hearts and souls to be expanded and mature. There are so many ways to extend ourselves; don't let excuses, fear, insecurities, or ignorance stop you from reaching out.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

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