I suppose it seems a bit obvious that today of all days I might be grateful for freedom but so what? I am. I am grateful for many kinds of freedom in my life. Not just the freedom I am afforded by living in a country that allows freedoms not known to other countries, not just the freedom I have because of others willing to fight for it and protect it. I am so grateful for those freedoms. But beyond those freedoms I have a greater one that I am grateful for. It is, of course, the freedom I have because I have put Christ as the authority over my life. Because I have allowed the One who knit me together and gave my life a purpose to have reign in my life. And because of that freedom in and through him I have freedom to be in relationship with him. And through that relationship from him I get to experience freedom from fear of others, freedom from fear of circumstances, freedom from things that try to drag me down and keep me from who I really am, I can achieve freedom from things that are not beneficial like gossiping, lying, gluttony, etc etc. So today, because of the heightened awareness of the freedoms this country has, I am grateful for freedom - in so many ways and especially in the way that counts the most for my life.
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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