Good Morning, Lord!

Elk Ridge Bed and Breakfast in Keystone, South Dakota

My husband, Dave, and I have just returned from a two-week road trip to Colorado visiting grandkids, and to South Dakota where I spoke at LifeWay’s You Lead Women’s Ministry Training in Sioux Falls. After the training, we continued up to the Black Hills where hubby had booked us into the Elk Ridge Bed and Breakfast in Keystone for a little site seeing on our way home.

Motorcycles Everywhere!

(Overhead Warning Road Signs in South Dakota and Wyoming)

To our surprise, we discovered after arriving in South Dakota that our visit to the Black Hills coincided with the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally—as in Harleys everywhere! The population in the Black Hills triples during this rally with bikers coming in the week before and staying the week after. Dave and I in our Subaru Forester with a luggage compartment on top were sorely out of place as we toured Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the scenic drive through Custer Park with packs of motorcycles. The music in our ears was the roaring Harley engines and the food we learned to eat was Buffalo Burgers when buffalo was the only item on the menu!

Dave eating a buffalo burger next to some Harley bikers from Switzerland!

South Dakota, Where God is First, and Reminders of the Lakota Warriors are Everywhere.

(On The Elk Ridge Bed and Breakfast website)

It’s amazing that Dave was able to get a reservation at the Elk Ridge Bed and Breakfast because all the hotels and campgrounds sell out during this annual Motorcycle Rally event. Other guests at the B&B had traveled on their motorcycles from Pennsylvania and Ohio, and when we checked out, our room went to another biker couple.

But God opened the door for us to be at this B&B at this time. The night we arrived, as I visited with our hosts, Leslie and Ron, I sensed immediately that they were Christians. As I often do . . . I just asked them if they were Christians, and they said absolutely!

Their strong faith was evident again the next morning at breakfast as the guests all gathered around the table and started getting to know each other. Leslie stood at the head of the table and quietly interjected “Shall we bless the food…” Without hesitation, she clasped her hands, bowed her head, and prayed: “Good morning, Lord! Thank you for this beautiful day and this beautiful place…” She went on to pray a protection over all of us who would be on the roads and asked a blessing for the food.

This was natural for Dave and me—we pray before every meal, everywhere. I don’t know where the other guests were spiritually, and I didn’t open my eyes to see who bowed with us in prayer, but there was respectful silence as Leslie prayed. When she said “Amen,” we started passing food around the table and went back to conversing.

After breakfast, I thanked Leslie for praying and asked if she prayed a blessing over breakfast every morning. She said yes, unless she can’t get her guests’ attention. On those mornings, she says “Well, Lord I tried, but let me pray for them.”

Elk Ridge was not featured as a “Christian B&B”…it is a lovely B&B operated by Christians who aren’t afraid to display their faith and love of the Lord and welcome each day with “Good morning, Lord.”

Questions to Think About . . .

If you owned a Bed and Breakfast or similar establishment, would you boldly pray a blessing over the food as Leslie did . . . even when you didn’t know, or you did know, the spiritual persuasion of your guests?

Do you pray over meals at your home when you know all your guests aren’t Christian? Why or why not?

Titus 1:16 says that some “people claim they know God, but they deny him by the way they live.” Leslie and Ron know God and acclaim Him by the way they live. Ah, if that could be said for everyone professing to be Christians, our world would be a different place today. Do you agree?

To find out more about Elk Ridge Bed and Breakfast.

More Pictures from Our Trip

Only room to park motorcycles in Keystone and every city nearby.

Even Pastor Greg Laurie joined the Motorcycle Rally. Here he is at Mt. Rushmore!