We take for granted the ability to go to the grocery store and find just about everything we could ever want. There are fruits and vegetables right at our finger tips. Gone are the days of families having to grow the vegetables they would need.

We take for granted that we can find just about every green, every style of rice or cut of meat.

But contrary to what some may believe, this amazing bounty is not through the good graces of the local grocery store, rather it is through the hard work, sweat, blood and tears of farmers throughout the country.

The cotton we so gladly enjoy the feel of in our clothing, does not come from weavers or the retailers. Instead it comes from the farmers who plant the crop, tend to it and watch the weather as if their lives depend upon it; because in a sense it does.

Late last week, the federal government declared 33 Alabama counties as drought disaster areas. Among those were Butler, Crenshaw, Dallas, Montgomery, Pike, Wilcox and Lowndes counties.

Today we offer our prayers to those who provide for their own families by tending to the crops, to those who provide so much to us and very rarely get the appreciation they so truly deserve.

You’re in our prayers.