Seasoned With Salt

I'm a southern young woman, ok? It's rough keeping my mouth shut sometimes and I know a million of you out there can relate to the struggle.

Despite my inability to divorce my geographic location and its obvious affects on my person, there comes a point in time when I look in the mirror and see someone as they are. Someone capable of building walls, tearing them down, or building friendships. I've done all three, though I wish I could say I had not.

Getting to the point here, I recognize that gossip and speaking without thinking is hereditary but nevertheless something we are commanded to overcome. I certainly can't tell anyone it's going to be easy...but I can certainly say the good Lord will make it doable given the right amount of discipline and bridling on our part. Ever tried to bridle a young horse or one that hasn't been ridden in six months or more? If you can compare the experience, you will know exactly what I mean.

Misuse of speech is not reserved to women only but also to men. It is part of our human and sinful nature to be superior in our thoughts and opinions to others. In the process, we also inevitably tear other people down with our lack of humility and kindness. Unfortunately sometimes we do this by attacking the characteristics of a person...even unchangeable things. And saying such things build walls that will prove difficult to tear down.

If we as Christians are commanded to reach out to others with a certain message, we are seriously confusing our message when we speak out of turn or let harmful words slip out under our breath to be heard by a now confused bystander. OK, that was a long sentence that you probably had to read twice. I'll do better... we cannot preach one thing and speak another as we please.

The tongue is a person's worst enemy and God commands us time and again to guard our speech. Proverbs has an ocean's worth of advice on the subject. I'll begin with four specific references...

"There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."

-Proverbs 12:18-

"The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly."

-Proverbs 15:2-

"A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit."

-Proverbs 15:4-

(And now one of my personal favorites...)

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits."

-Proverbs 18:21-

Is it any wonder that our ears and tongue are the gateways to not only our innermost thoughts and the state of our soul, but also our friendships, relationships, and ministry?

One thing that I believe has been the demise of humanity, especially professing Christians, is social media. Though it has its positive points such as connection and friendship forming, social media is a platform where nearly anything can be said behind a screen without the accountability of an uncomfortable face-to-face encounter. It is quite sad to observe the great lengths that people will go to prove themselves. Some even go to the point of making others' opinions as demeaned as they possibly can in order to make their own opinion more valid or, forbid it, scholarly.

Sure, we can spend less time on social media in order to prevent ourselves from being tempted to say what we shouldn't. That takes discipline as well and I think such abstinence is commendable. But wouldn't it be even better if we learned to speak life? If not given the avenue of social media to spill our poison, the tongue will find another way.

I've found that in my own shortcomings, feasting my eyes on good things makes me think good things. I try to live my life by one of many good rules that says, "Whatever I put in, will come out.". If I am living selfishly and satisfying my own desires in what I want to read, conversations I have, music or podcasts that I listen to, and opinions I take to heart... those things are going to come out in what I say.

I also realize and have realized, sometimes painfully, that when all of that sort of stuff comes out in the words I say, my words are bland and they hold no ground. If my goal in life is to reach others with the Christ I claim to know, then failing to fill my heart and mind with the things I know bring Him glory is a disservice to all I speak to. If I have no Christ in mind to speak, then I am not speaking life, I am spewing forth death at the tip of a forked and jagged edged tongue. Remember Proverbs 18:21. Death and life are truly within the tongue's power, and to say that makes one realize how deadly something so small can be.

So what's our goal or our purpose? God gave us speech and He desires that it be used to glorify Him. It is one of our means of communication with others.

"Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person."

-Colossians 4:6-

If ever a verse so elegantly instructed us to speak positivity, it is this one. What is food if not seasoned well? It is bland, uninteresting, flavorless, or worse, kind of gross. 

That being said, 

What is our speech if not seasoned well? It is bland, uninteresting, flavorless, unkind, a wrecking ball, and a painfully honest window to a soul not filled with good things. 

Our speech is pivotal to reaching others. Though we can communicate with our body language and even our eyes, nothing is quite as effective as our ability to build up or tear someone (or something) down with the spoken word. 

My first responsibility is to myself. If I feel the temptation to speak negatively, I need to not speak at all until I have a bit of encouragement to spread instead of my self-produced poison. My responsibility is to fill myself with Jesus and to know Him more fully before I begin thinking and speaking my own thoughts. I want to speak Jesus to others. As Matthew Kelly noted in his book "Rediscover Jesus",

"Look around you. The world is constantly grappling with crisis and war. People are weary from the dysfunction of their own lives. The chaos is crying out for order. The complexity is crying out for simplicity. At every level in society."

That simplicity is the message of Jesus. A gloriously flavorful message given to satisfy, nourish and build up. Our world is so dry and is so very thirsty for more of Jesus. I don't know about you, but it is time my tongue adopted that message more fully and started becoming the change that society needs.

Because that is what it boils down to. The world needs Jesus and we are appointed messengers.

The subjects Maddy comes up with on her own are tired, dull, and sinful. The world is looking for something beyond that. We must be willing to open our hearts and minds to Christ once again so that our tongue begins to communicate a well-seasoned message of truth and love.

Speak life. Speak Jesus. Let your message be well seasoned this week and every week.

Blessings,

~Maddy~