Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Colossians 4:6
SALT.
A simple, even common seasoning found in every household. Something that we may take for granted but was considered a precious commodity back in the day and contributed to the development of civilization, playing a role in the location and power of the world’s great cities. Pretty impressive for something we can easily pick up on a trip to the store! Or in my case vacation. On a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, I brought home not one, but two different types of salt. Yup, I could have brought home anything and I chose salt to add to my collection of 6 or 7 different salts already in my cupboard. I may have a problem. You, and my husband, may wonder why I have so many different salts, but they each serve a purpose.
Salt enhances flavors, reduces bitterness and preserves food.
With my self-professed salt obsession, Colossians 4:6 intrigues me.
What does it mean to season our speech with salt?
Salt enhances flavors. In the right amount, it brings out more of a food’s actual flavor whether savory or sweet. Could that be the same for the words I choose to speak? Sprinkling graciousness generously throughout my conversations could impact others in ways I don’t even realize.
Salt reduces bitterness. Sometimes it works through chemical interaction or by overwhelming bitter flavors, salt impacts how pleasant food tastes. How many times have I needed a bit of “salt” to reduce the bitter in my words or conversations in order to make them more pleasing? Ouch!
Salt preserves. For centuries salt has been used to preserve foods for later consumption to sustain life. How can my seasoned words preserve a relationship or create a new lasting one?
The last part of the verse, “so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” is a hard one. I often don’t have the right words in the moment. Whether it is a friend whose heart is broken or one who is skeptical about my faith. I want to say the perfect thing, but it may be more important that my words are full of grace and love and without bitterness so that they can soothe or soften a heart.
Time for me to extend my love of salt from my food to my words!
With love, Debbie
