Seasoned With Salt

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. " Colossians 4:5-6

Anytime there is a cooking reference in the Bible, it always perks my interest. This is one of those verses, and when I saw it this morning, I thought it was very relevant to yesterday's post. I love this- let your conversation be seasoned with salt. What on earth does that mean? Let's talk a little about that salt. Salt is essential to great cooking. Ask any chef what one thing they could never cook without, and they would say salt. A steak could be cooked over a fire with no tools, but if you didn't have salt, it would simply be a hunk of meat. It's the salt that makes it a steak. Salt brings out the flavor in everything you use it in. I use it when making candies and sweets because just a pinch of salt helps round out the flavors and highlight a beautiful ingredient like caramel. Salt is an enhancer, essentially.

Think about that, think about an enhanced conversation. What would that be? Maybe instead of "Hi, how are you doing?" "Well how are you doing? It's great to see you!" Or instead, when someone asks how you are doing, instead of "fine, how are you?" you say "I'm doing great! God has blessed me with such a beautiful day/family/job." We're adding some exuberance, some interest instead of the formed responses we are all used to saying and hearing. In the last few weeks I've been changing things up a bit, and I tell you, I do notice a difference. At church on Sunday I was unable to talk beyond a whisper, but when someone asked me how I was doing, I was exuberant "I'm doing great!" and I got such a look! I think this person was surprised first of all, that I would say I was doing great in the first place- great sounds like life is perfect. And I couldn't talk! So despite the fact that I had no voice and I was still doing great...I do think that says something. God is great, so why wouldn't I feel great?

Enhanced conversations don't always have to come from a great start either. Think about how many times you see someone and ask how they are doing, and they kind of sigh, and then start telling you about something bad that happened, or something that's weighing on their mind. What is our usual response? For me, it's usually a little sympathy, some empathy perhaps, and then I'll say something trite like 'well, I'll be praying for that' or something along those lines. An enhanced, salted conversation would be more like, "gosh, that just sounds overwhelming for one person, here, let's go in this room over here and pray about it and give the problem to God. That way you can enjoy your day."

Any opportunity to get out the salt shaker is a good one. By focusing on the good that God has been doing in your life, you're getting plenty of opportunity to share that God with others. And in addition, you will find that by focusing on the good yourself that your own mood and disposition will improve greatly. This is one of those win-win situations where everyone leaves feeling better. All it takes is one person, one joyful person to catch someone else up in their joy. One person can start a revolution of joy, and that's one revolution I would love to be guilty of starting.