When God’s people were led into captivity in Babylon, He instructed them, by the mouth of the prophet Jeremiah: “Seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jeremiah 29:7). Do we respect the land where we live today? Do we make choices that tend that tend for the peace and well-being of our land?

Criticizing the elected officials of our land doesn’t do that. It just creates anger, bitterness and division.

Here’s one small hint. It doesn’t cost much, it won’t make a big stir, but if enough people would do it, it could make our country more prosperous. I live in Canada, so my suggestion is that when we go shopping we should look for Canadian grown, Canadian-made products.

Those products will sometimes cost a bit more, and many of us have become conditioned to look for the lowest price. But think of the larger picture. People who produce goods in Canada also spend their money in Canada and pay taxes in Canada. People who make those products in other countries contribute nothing to Canada’s economy. Sometimes there may even be a question whether they pay their workers.

What prompted this line of thought is that I was recently looking for printer paper. I looked in three major retailers, all American-owned by the way, and could not find any Canadian-made paper. One retailer had a pallet load of paper that was made in China. So I checked out a Canadian office supply business and found they had all kinds of paper that was made in Canada. I bought a box and began thinking down the lines of this article.

Perhaps it is self-centred and short-sighted to always look for the lowest price. Jeremiah said “in the peace thereof ye shall have peace.” What if we would consider that in the prosperity of our land, we shall prosper.