I was reminded today of the big picture. It's so easy to forget about it and lose sight of it. And sometimes it is only through life experience that we remember to take into account the big picture. I'm grateful there is a bigger picture. I'm grateful for the hope that the bigger picture can provide. It gives hope because it reminds us that the place where we feel stuck is only a small, perhaps minute, part of the picture that is our life. As I learn to remember the bigger picture of life I have a responsibility to remind others to look for it in their own lives as well and be a messenger of hope.
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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