Give Us Our Daily Fresh-Baked Bread

The smell of fresh-baked bread is so pleasing to the senses that Realtors often have one of those "bread machines" going when showing a house so the prospective buyers have positive thoughts about the home.

In my house, if I bake bread – well, I only do banana bread and Amish Friendship Bread and those types – the first loaf out of the oven is gone before the others even cool.

There's just something about fresh-baked bread. It fills your senses, your tummy and your soul. (So unfortunate carbs are getting such a bad rap these days!)

When we say the Lord's Prayer and ask for our "daily bread," we are just seeking enough to fill our soul for the day. Not asking for more than we need. Not looking ahead too far down the unknown path. Just willing to live with what God gives us.

That day.

My Grandma Hedberg had a painting similar to the one above hanging on her wall. After all these years, I remember that. It was by her table so I knew the man was saying grace. I wasn't old enough to know the message was that he was thanking God for his daily bread. His daily dose of blessings.

We were reminded of it today in church when we had our worship service in a park in town, followed by a potluck. The pastor was talking about being spiritually hungry. Unlike our immediate satisfaction with warm bread, we may not even know we are spiritually hungry – or spiritually lacking. Sort of like the Footprints poem. When things are going well, we don't think of God as much as when we are challenged or hurting or needy.

I try not to take my blessings for granted. I do thank God every night in my prayers but I still get pinged with reminders the other 23-plus hours of the day. And is isn't just my stomach growling.

It's seeing loved ones struggle. It's feeling physical or emotional distress. It's suffering pain of loss.

But when we get a whiff of that fresh-baked bread, we remember the slice has two sides. We also have the joy of waking up to sunshine. It is spending one-on-one time worshiping and having lunch with my son. It is spending the afternoon with my hubby, watching him paint on the deck while I sit in Mr. Deck Chair. It is cleaning another closet and filling two more bags to take to Goodwill. It is writing a letter to a special person in prison who is working with God to turn his life around.

It is all that in one day.

Did you count your daily blessings today?