Our Daily Bread

Check out all of YMI’s content pieces tagged under Our Daily Bread. We hope you’d benefit from the written and visual content we have under this topic: Our Daily Bread.

ODB: The Wise Old Owl

Years ago an anonymous writer penned a short poem about the merits of measuring our words.A wise old owl sat in an oak; The more he saw the less he spoke; The less he spoke the more he heard; Why can’t we all be like that wise old bird? There is a connection between wisdom and limiting what we say. Proverbs 10:19 says, “In the multitude of words sin is not l

ODB: The Language Of Whistling

On La Gomera, one of the smallest of the Canary Islands, a language that sounds like a bird song is being revived. In a land of deep valleys and steep ravines, schoolchildren and tourists are learning how whistling was once used to communicate for distances up to 2 miles. One goat herder who is using this ancient language once again to communicate with his flock said, “They recognize my whistle

ODB: An Emergency Of The Spirit

In March 2011, a devastating tsunami struck Japan, taking nearly 16,000 lives as it obliterated towns and villages along the coast. Writer and poet Gretel Erlich visited Japan to witness and document the destruction. When she felt inadequate to report what she was seeing, she wrote a poem about it. In a PBS NewsHour interview she said, “My old friend William Stafford, a poet now gone, s

ODB: Repeat Warnings

“Caution, the moving walkway is ending. Caution, the moving walkway is ending.” If you’ve ever used an automated walkway at an airport, you’ve heard this kind of announcement repeatedly.Why do airports repeat this announcement over and over? To ensure safety and to protect them from liability if someone were to be injured.Repeated announcements can be annoying, but they do have value. As a

ODB: Medieval Meal

A while ago I attended a conference on the Middle Ages. In one seminar we actually prepared several foods that would have been common in medieval times. We used pestle and mortar to grind cinnamon and fruit to make jam. We cut orange rinds and broiled them with honey and ginger to produce a sweet snack. We crushed almonds with water and other ingredients to create almond milk. And, finally, we pre

ODB: Rooted

Joash must have been confused and frightened when he was told about the evil deeds of his grandmother Athaliah. She had murdered his brothers to usurp the power of the throne in Judah. But baby Joash had been safely hidden away by his aunt and uncle for 6 years (2 Chron. 22:10-12). As he grew, he enjoyed the love and instruction of his caregivers. When Joash was only 7 years old, he was secretly c

ODB: On Being Known

One of the most difficult inner conflicts we have is our desire to be known versus our fear of being known. As beings created in the image of God we are made to be known—known by God and also by others. Yet due to our fallen nature, all of us have sins and weaknesses that we don’t want others to know about. We use the phrase “dark side” to refer to aspects of our lives that we keep hidden.

ODB: Love To Tell His Story

When noted author Studs Terkel was looking for a topic for his next book, one of his friends suggested “death.” While he was resistant at first, the idea gradually began to take shape, but its voice became all too real when Mr. Terkel’s wife of 60 years passed away. Now the book was also a personal search: a yearning to know what lies beyond, where his loved one had just gone. Its pages are

ODB: Giving It To God

A hero to a generation of people who grew up after World War II, Corrie ten Boom left a legacy of godliness and wisdom. A victim of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, she survived to tell her story of faith and dependence on God during horrendous suffering.“I have held many things in my hands,” Corrie once said, “and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, t