For Tuesday, January 22: Still starving?

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death. Pearl S. Buck

Today's quote makes me think of the saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The two go hand-in-hand I believe.
If you give someone "bread" but no hope accompanies it then the person will starve, figuratively of course. When we give "bread" let us also introduce hope. This happens through a variety of ways. Like the second quote I snuck in today we can teach a person how to "fish" so that they can be fed for a lifetime. We can show them how to tap into services that will support them and help them - medical clinics, food pantries, Job training centers, etc. This is part of handing out hope along with the "bread". Sometimes it comes through less practical ways. Have you ever considered when the last time a person starving for hope and the more practical things of life may have been hugged? Touched in kindness? Spoken to with grace? Given the benefit of the doubt? These things offer hope as well. And without those kinds of things in our lives we all will starve to death emotionally.
"Bread" isn't the real sustenance, it is hope. Offer both together and watch an abundant life rise up.

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April 5, 2015

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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.

A dime a dozen

"It's said that in the year 1796, the first U.S. dimes were produced for circulation. Hence, it would make sense for this phrase to originate sometime after." Read more here . Today the phrase carries the meaning that something is cheap or without value if it can be lumped in with other similar or exactly-like things. It's more of an insult than anything.

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