Ava Semerau is a published author and award-winning journalist. She’s also an American expat, a wife and mother, and a Christian. Her latest book is titled, , And God Was Pleased
How many kinds of salt do you have in your pantry?
I checked the other day, and I have six – probably five more than I need! I have table salt (with and without added iodine), coarse salt, grinder salt, sea salt and even grey salt.
You could say I got hooked on salt a few years ago when a friend gifted me a fancy salt grinder. The gift came with a small bag of chunky coarse salt. As the saying goes, I tried it and I liked it!
It wasn’t long and another friend gave me a bag of sparkling white sea salt for my new grinder.
And then one day at the local market, I found a bag of funny-looking grey salt and had to try it, as well. Grey salt looks like sea salt only dirtier and tastes more bitter. It’s an acquired taste, I guess.
I like salt a lot. Probably too much, but I love what it does to food. It takes away the bitterness of an eggplant and adds to the sweetness of a melon. It brings out the flavor of pork chops and turns even a bland hard-boiled egg into something spectacular.
Salt just brings out the best in things.
That’s probably one of the reasons Paul referred to salt when he was telling the Colossians how to behave around non-believers.
Season your conversations with salt, he told them. Remove the bitterness, enhance the sweetness. Give the things you say more tang, more texture. Turn the average into the unforgettable!
In other words, bring out the best in others – and for others.
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 NIV)
Be kind, Paul reminds us.
Lift others up instead of running them down. Let your words reflect Christ in your life.
Show consistency between what you believe and who you are, and follow the advice of James 1:22: Don’t let the word of God go in one ear and out the other. Do what it says.
Act on what you know to be pleasing to God and, as my favorite recipes all say, salt to taste.
Paul’s advice to “season with salt” hits equally hard on two different Biblical principles, Be Kind and Think More Praiseworthy Thoughts.
Be Kind tells us: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 KJV). Be Kind is exemplified in the Beatitudes, and it reminds us to treat others the way we want to be treated.
Thinking Praiseworthy Thoughts encourages us: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.(Philippians 4:8 ). Thinking Praiseworthy thoughts is all about staying positive – in the things we think and say, and the things we pay attention to.
These two principles together help us to keep a positive mental attitude toward others as well as ourselves, and form the basis of a God-pleasing life.
For more information on these principles, as well as the other 15 Biblical principles for creating Christian success, pick up a copy of book And God Was Pleased