Daily Bread

The phrase “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer, as many commentators point out, starts the portion of the prayer relating to our personal needs. The first part of the prayer is dedicated to declaring God’s goodness and glory. In the second half, we recognize our dependence and our response to the goodness of God.

What might “daily bread” mean? Is it just the food we eat? Or is it all the sustenance of life that is provided for us day by day? Perhaps both? Daily bread is also the relationships we share with each other that nourish and refresh us.

Part 1
Make bread or a treat to share with someone ‘just because’, or take someone to lunch, as a way of recognizing that the daily bread is a food, but it is also the relationship of fellowship around a table.
If you want to start a round of Amish Friendship Bread, you can find the recipe here from my book, A Sampler of Bible Beauty. (For the book, it's called "Naomi's Friendship Bread", but the recipe is the same.)

Part 2

Grow through us this moment’s bread and wisdom from the Aramaic translation offers a broader perspective by asking God for bread and wisdom. This is important because God gives us the discernment we need to determine how to meet our own needs and how to reach beyond our comfort zone.

Give or send a card to someone who might be lonely or to a service person to let them know you are thinking of them. You could even make the card if you are feeling crafty.

Take cookies, or bread, to your local fire or police station because our first responders don’t get thanked often.

Bonus

Of course there are people in the world, and even in our cities and towns, that don’t have enough actual bread, rice, beans, or any food to make it through from day to day. I recently heard of the SNAP Challenge. The goal is awareness of the reality of getting enough food on only $4.50/day/person. That is the amount men and women on food stamps are allotted. Think about it, that’s $31.50/week/person. For some in our country, the amount many of us spend on a fancy coffee is all they have to live on all day long!

You might decide to make an impact in the war against hunger by donating to a food pantry or some other organization that is working to end hunger. One is the Rachel Ray show challenge to fund 9 million meals. For each dollar donated, 10 meals are provided. There are plenty of local options as well, no matter where you live.

Next time, we’ll consider our response to the Holy and Loving God who provides for us and how we too often break the relationships within the community and between ourselves and God by not being able to forgive.