“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.” Colossians 4:6 CSB
Morton Salt gives these household tips for its use:
Stain Removal: use salt to clean stains from coffee pots and vases. Salt removes rust from household appliances and bicycles.
Wellness: gargling with salt water alleviates mild sore throats. Soaking in warm salt water soothes tired feet after a long day.
Odor Elimination: salt can remove odors from hands, cutting boards, even garbage disposals.
Salt has many uses, from keeping meat from decaying to removing odors, it’s simple but powerful. Our words can have the same affect. Our words can remove the stain of sin by giving forgiveness to others. Words can take the rust off of an old relationship and give it new life. What we say promotes health and wellness. When we speak life giving words to the people God places before us, we’re giving them positive energy that helps them live a healthier, more balanced life. And lastly, our words remove odors, they remove the stench of sin when they speak love into people’s lives. When our words are full of loving kindness, forgiveness and mercy, encouragement and belief they are seasoned with salt.
The daily recommendation for salt in America is about 1 teaspoon a day. However, the actual amount used by Americans is approximately 50% more than what is recommended. We love our salt in America, and we should love it in our words. We should think of it as seasoning in all we say, whenever we say it. Seasoning all of our language with God’s grace, His mercy and His love will mean we always know what to say and when to say it. It means we will also know, if we have nothing nice to say, we shouldn’t say anything. It’s a simple filter we can all use to season our words. Before we say it, ask this simple question: Is what I’m about to say uplifting and encouraging? If it isn’t, then we shouldn’t say it. In fact, we shouldn’t say anything UNTIL it is uplifting and encouraging. By putting this one simple filter into our speech, it will ensure that our timing is always perfect.
In all reality, there will be times we say things we shouldn’t say. Words will slip out of our mouths that were never meant to be heard, only thought. When that happens, ask for forgiveness and learn from it. Learn what you can do to prevent it from happening again. Seek God and His wisdom, ask a friend to hold you accountable, put your hand over your mouth. Do whatever it takes to learn from your mistake, then move on. Don’t let it hold you back. We all make mistakes, none of us are perfect. We should always listen more than we speak, but when we don’t, learn the art of forgiving yourself. God already forgave you, it’s ok to let yourself off the hook too.
