Let’s just get it out there—-I LOVE BREAD!!!
Not just any bread.  No, I love the white Butternut loaf, and I love this particular kind for a specific reason.
Go with me on a journey in our minds. The land is pancake flat, the white-sided farmhouse sits pretty much alone because there are no neighbors in sight to the left of the driveway or to the right.  When we walk in the back door of this farmhouse, a decision must be made.  Immediately, three doors appear in our sight.
To go left is to step into the kitchen.
To go straight is to descend to the basement floor.
To go right is to step into the pine-walled TV room.
We turn left, opening the door and step into the kitchen.
I LOVE BREAD!!!
When I was a small girl, I was one who dressed in her favorite cousin, Robby’s hand-me-downs and one who religiously played with her younger brother—outside—farming with tractors in the sandbox, riding bikes to play police chase, and running shirtless through the backyard and even beyond to the barnyard with her toy gun and holster strapped around her slender hips. (It’s a good thing my husband learned to cook, or we would have starved to death in the early years of our marriage.)
I LOVE BREAD!!!

Life can be so good when we are kids.  
We have few worries.
We play, until the daylight leaves and the nightfall forces us inside.
We go from here to there, never concerned about anything other than the fact that night will come too quickly and we will need to postpone our outdoor play until the next morning.

I LOVE BREAD!!!
Maybe you, too, love to eat bread; maybe you, too, know the wonderful taste of a slice of white Butternut bread de-crusted and then laid flat in the palm of your hand and gently rolled into a ball, small enough to fill the inside cheek area of your mouth.
I was a cowboy, when I was a little girl living on the flat plains of Indiana. I was a cowboy, and so I acted, played, and dressed like a cowboy.
I kept my “chaw” tucked into my cheek, and I loved every single moment of my childhood, but this LOVE was because of my love for childish games of play; no, my LOVE was because of my love for bread.

In the farmhouse kitchen (the room to the left when we stepped in the back door) the one across from the TV room, there was a hard and fast rule—-Do not snack between meals.
PERIOD. !!! End of discussion. !!!
When we sat down to dinner (or supper as we called it back then), we were expected to arrive to mom’s table HUNGRY and READY to eat.
Mom was a good cook, so enjoying the food was never an issue.
My brother and I played hard, so arriving to the kitchen table hungry was never an issue.
My older sister was into Barbies and paper dolls, fixing her doll’s  hair, and staying inside the house, playing, and then later (when she was older), listening to rock & roll. So coming to the table from outside the house was never the issue (because I usually did not play inside with her toys).

The issue was that I had this love-affair with bread, and so I snacked between meals.

Our kitchen table was a rectangular shape.  I sat on the left side, closest to the kitchen sink, within reach of the refrigerator, next to my younger brother, and across from my older sister.  Mom and Dad sat at each end of the table. Now, today I am blessed with two more siblings, but back then, it was just the five of us (3 children & 2 parents).

“Nancy, get the bread, please,” mom said after we prayed our normal “God is Great…God is Good” prayer, before we began eating.
Oh no!!!  There it was!!!  Mom and dad would now know the truth!!!  I could not hide the truth of my in-between meal snacking because there it was, the statement voiced, to get the loaf of bread, and now all the world (the Dixon family world) would now see—-there was only 2/3 of a loaf of bread remaining, and mom had just purchased the bread at the grocery—Just Yesterday.

Now, in the 70s, we lived during the era when we shared everything, the era when no one received a full portion.
When we asked mom for gum, she skillfully sliced the stick of gum into three tiny pieces for us to share.
When we asked for cola to drink, a single bottle from the carton of cola was poured evenly into three separate glasses, sometimes even poured back a bit, if someone gained more than was her share.
When we ate food, we shared all the food……so the loaf of bread was for the family of five to eat and never for just one toy-gun toting, boy pant-wearing, rolled, bread-eating girl.
Yet, the evidence was easy to see!!!
Nancy had been snacking between meals, and Nancy had eaten two-thirds of the loaf of bread—Herself. &  Now, she has consumed (in one day) MORE than her fair share of the bread.
I LOVE BREAD!!!

Now, my parents are wonderful parents.  They fed us, clothed us, provided shelter for us, cared for us, loved us, hugged us, and “Did Not Get Angry,” Whenever Their Middle Child Ate Too Much of the Bread, more than her fair share.
Thank you, God, because if they had cared, if they had been “prone to get angry” parents, ones who did not love their children, then they might have become angry whenever their middle child ate her fair share of the bread (and the shares of her siblings too).

My love for bread continues (still today in adulthood), but the BREAD I speak of today is not the same white-colored, Butternut bread that is purchased at the local grocery.

The Bible gives us a mental image to consider, one filled with solid-red words (the words Jesus spoke).  In one particular passage, Jesus instructs us how to pray.

We pray—to our Father, the one who is holy.
We address Him with awe, fear, and reverence because His name is hallowed & because He is God.
His kingdom will soon come to earth; it is a Promise from God.
When Jesus returns to earth, His Will—will be –Done—upon this earth, just as His Will is accomplished in heaven.
God grants us a daily portion of daily bread, nothing more, nothing less. He expects us to consume our portion—DAILY.
God forgives us our debt of sin, and He expects us to forgive others, to hold no grudges….But To Forgive…Just As Jesus Did Toward Us.
God will not lead us into temptation, but God will lead us away from those things that we desire because of our humanness, what we are tempted by Satan to desire more than Him.
And His kingdom, the earth and the “heavenlies” and everything in between—-belongs to God because He is all-powerful and holds glory forevermore within His hand.
Yes, that’s God directive for prayer, His model prayer. On those days when I ate too many slices of “my daily bread,” then dad and mom forgave me, knowing that I had been tempted to consume more than my share. Instead of becoming angry, my dad instructed me to eat “my daily bread” with others in mind.
WHY?
WHY EAT A ONE-DAY-PORTION?
WHY SHARE MY DAILY BREAD WITH OTHERS?
WHY SHOULD I NOT EAT MORE THAN MY PORTION, WITHOUT OTHERS IN MIND?
It’s Quite Simple—-It’s “DAILY” BREAD!!!
God gives us the EXACT portion we need—-Daily.
The Bible (God’s Holy Word) is freely given to us as the way to know God intimately, the only way to salvation provided through the Son of God. The “daily bread” is our instruction from our heavenly Father, to help us walk in newness of life—DAILY.
Thank You God for giving to us our daily portion of Your Word (of Your Daily Bread).
Thank You God for giving us all of Your Word.
Thank You God for loving us so much that You sent Jesus to provide a way to know You.
Thank You God for giving us a LOVE for Your Daily Bread (Your Most Holy Bible).