The Hands that Produced It

"Dear Lord, thank you for this day of fellowship. Thank you for providing safety to all of us. Bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies. Bless the hands that prepared it, as well as the hands that produced it. In Your name I pray, Amen.”

In my FFA chapter, prayer was a common occurrence. We prayed before every trip in the ag-truck. We prayed before every meeting and meal. We prayed before every competition and livestock show.

My senior year of high school, I was on a retreat with my fellow chapter officers and ag-ed teacher. The topic of how we pray came into conversation. A few of the officers had recently spent time with another FFA member from a different chapter. Apparently, this chapter always ended their prayer with: “…bless the hands that prepared it, as well as produced it.” It was then challenged that our chapter should begin doing this.

It eventually became such a deal that in every situation, even outside of FFA, people waited for the prayer to end with “as well as produced it”. If someone did not say this, people would make sure that person knew he or she didn’t say it.

Now, two years later, I find myself praying before meals and ending the prayer asking for blessing to the hands that produced to food. No one has ever really questioned it, until one day a family member noticed. She immediately said, “It must’ve been an FFA thing”.

While yes, I did develop this habit through FFA, I was offended that she implied that it was just an FFA thing. I tried explaining that producers are just as important as the chefs, and they, too, need to be prayed for. My family member just sort of laughed it off.

Many people are involved in the process of making meals. Farmers grew and took care of the vegetable, fruit, grain, and meat. There were hands who put their love into preparing the meals for everyone to eat.

Since being at college, I have noticed the lack of knowledge of the agriculture industry people have. The people I know that are farmers and ranchers work significantly hard in making sure their product is taken care of well. They work long hours in tractors or feed trucks. Most of these people also hold other jobs besides farming and ranching.

It is the least anyone can do to ask for blessing to these people who have produced our food.