Shelter is great but a furnace to heat the shelter is pretty great too. I was thinking tonight about being in shelter that wasn't heated. To be protected from the elements can be the difference between life and death but eventually the body is going to need something to heat that shelter. So every time I heard the furnace kick on during this cold day, and heading into what is going to be a frigid night, I was grateful...and then I was prayerful for those that have neither shelter nor furnace in this weather. Prayerful that they would find a place to dwell and be warm.
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.
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