The mistakes have been mine

One advantage of growing older is looking back and seeing that God has not made a single mistake in my life. Evelyn Christenson

Some people, a lot of people?, are going to read today's quote and disagree. They will pull up all their examples of mistakes they think God has made in their lives. I'm going to issue a challenge. Do another inventory, take another long look at your life, consider carefully the things you think are mistakes - are they really? And are they God's mistakes or yours?
I look back on my life - way past and more recent past - and can see the mistakes made were never God's but mine. And I've got to own them. God doesn't make mistakes but I make plenty. In fact, I make quite a few especially when it comes to God! It's MY mistake when I follow a direction I think he has pointed me in only to arrive at the dead end. And he's so gracious to provide plenty of clues along the way but I'm bound and determined to see it through. Many people blame God for that, but I think we are all smart enough to know that the blame lies squarely within us. Growing older provides each of us with a valuable perspective on our life, we make the mistakes (and that's okay!) and God is there to help us through the "fall out" of our mistakes.

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.

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.

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.

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