OKEECHOBEE – The guest speaker at Okeechobee’s Farm City Week Luncheon said he wasn’t going to talk about farming. Instead, Woody Larson said he wanted to talk about history, faith and today.

Larson noted 2026 will be the country’s 250^th birthday. “We’re going to celebrate all year long,” he added.

“The new nation operated under the Articles of Confederation. They knew they wanted to be independent from England,” he said.

“They knew they didn’t want a monarchy or a king, so they drew up the Articles of Confederation.

“It wasn’t until 13 years later that they wrote and adopted the Constitution

“The Constitution has seven articles in it, but the first three provide for the three branches of government.  The first article is Legislative, the second is Executive and the third is Judicial.

“What are the first three words of the Constitution? We the People. That’s why the Legislative Branch is first. It starts with the people.

“You think about that struggling country that was just starting out. They named George Washington as the first president,” he continued. He said Washington was the only president who received unanimous votes of all electors.

“He was the only man who could do the job and have the support of all the people,” said Larson.

“Think about that: Brand new nation, new president and he has to set the course for the whole country. You can debate about who was the greatest president, but in my opinion, considering all the things he went through, no one comes close.”

Larson said a week after Farm City Week is Thanksgiving and giving thanks is about faith.

“But who do we thank?” he continued. “Most of our prayers are said at mealtime.

“We may mention some other concerns … all of us have things we may pray about, but we all thank God for our food.

He noted the Lord’s Prayer includes the phrase: “Give us this day, our daily bread.”

“We need to eat every day,” he said. “We go to the grocery store, and we have faith there is going to be food there. Farmers plant a seed, and they have faith it is going to grow a crop.

“Whether we like to say it or not, we have faith every day,” he continued.

“Today is Farm City Day, one week a year when we celebrate farmers and agriculture,” Larson said.

“Today is our dependence day, a day that we acknowledge that we all depend on farmers.

“Farmers need things too you know. We need tractors and we need seed, fertilizer and computers and a new pickup truck once in a while.

“The bottom line is, we need each other,” he said. “You have to remember: We depend on God’s providence as well.”