A Grain of Salt

Two things always stand out in my mind when it comes to salt...the first being that anything I say is to be seasoned with salt and the second thing being that when it comes to certain people, everything I hear needs to be taken with a grain of salt.


The first is a struggle for me at times. I'm pretty blunt and I purpose to lay things out as clearly as possible. Don't get me wrong, I love a good allegory as much as the next person, but most of the time, I find it's easier to get my point across if I just state things plain and dry. My husband told me last night that this is a good thing...most of the time. It's not such a good thing if I'm leaning towards not liking the person I'm conversing with because in those instances plain and dry can become cutting to the quick. The last thing I want is to hurt anyone with my words out of spite or maliciousness. Now, if someone gets their feelings hurt because I've been honest with them or pointed something out that they have asked about, that's on them. I regress a little but the main thrust is that I'm working on ALL of my speech being seasoned with salt. If I'm going to say something out loud, it needs to be benefitting to those who happen to hear it. If it doesn't benefit, I would do better to just keep it to myself.


The second is becoming something I default to when it comes to anyone that I don't know very well or haven't seen a consistent pattern of truth telling in their lives. I don't mean they flat out lie. I mean I've seen a tendency to stretch the truth, add to the truth, take away from the truth, or share an interpretation of the truth. Telling some of the truth is worse than telling a flat out lie in my book because the person hearing the news has to wade through it all and sort out what's fact, what's fiction, and what's opinion before they can determine what impact (if any) the news has on their life or what role they might need to play in the situation.


And then, there is just plain old gossip which is something I cannot abide. BECAUSE if I'm not part of the problem, I'm probably not going to be part of the solution. And if I'm not part of the solution, what purpose does it serve anyone for me to know about something that's none of my business? I've made it a policy and put it out there many times that if it's gossip, I would rather not know. Does this mean that I'm not accosted by people on a fairly regular basis? Of course not. But, I have noticed that instead of it being presented as gossip, it's usually presented as news which means it falls into giving it a good dose of salt before, during, and after we're done speaking to each other.


And that's why salt is becoming my go to on giving and receiving words. And with some people that happen to be in my life, I'd almost rather we didn't speak because it's such a process to actually get to the bottom of what they're trying to tell me.


But, that falls under the "being patient" category which I definitely need to do some growing in because I know the Lord has certainly been very patient with me which means I need to extend the same amount of patience to everyone else. And, I know I have a lot of growing up to do too. Still.