Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer anyone. Colossians 4:6
What does salt have to do with one's speech or conversation?
Conversation between people can be sweet, or sour, dripping like honey, or bitter tasting. It depends on what the conversation is about and who is doing the talking. In the Apostle Paul's time, salt was a preservative for meat and a commodity in which it could be used as a type of currency. What he was trying to convey was that the believers of the day should preserve the message that Jesus Christ had come to give us. Plus, as believers, we should always be uplifting, loving, helpful and more, to other people.
Another notable aspect is that of another scripture: A soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous words stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1
Yeah, but what do I do when I am living with a person that thinks he/she is right all the time, and everyone else is wrong all the time? Isn't that like letting a person walk all over me?
Know anyone like that? Believe me, I do.
It could be letting the person walk all over you. If you don't stand up for your self in doing so. A soft answer does not mean that you let the person get away with putting you down, or that you can't tell them they are wrong. With a person like that, you may need God's wisdom of what to say in those moments that will turn away their wrath rather then to fuel it. Because as Proverbs 15:1 says, their anger can only stir up an even bigger blow up.
God knows what words to give you at any given time, that will soften the blows of the other person. He can give them to you in an instant. Without making you feel defenseless. But you have to be ready You have to be willing to listen to him. By reading his word. By knowing what he is saying to you. By willing to be soft instead of angry yourself and wanting that person to be wrong and you be right.
It is better to give a soft but short answer, and the walk away, I have found. To let them think about what you have just said. And then address it later in a more quiet conversation. Easy? Not usually. But it does work. And it is much better then getting into a big fight that lasts for hours or even days.
Conversations between people should be preserved like salt does food. God does not want us to break down communication with those around us, whether with our families, our neighbors or other believers. Because then the unbelievers watching us can have reason to look at us and wonder why we call ourselves Christians when we act just like them. Why would they want that?
No, it isn't easy. And believe me I know that for a fact. But I also know that as God is teaching me, I am learning some valuable ways that I wish I had known years ago in my communication with other people. In my family and others alike.
I have not yet got a full grip on it, but I am willing to keep learning, and I have seen what happen when I turn away with a soft answer, rather then with an angry one, or worse yet, none at all. Because there have been those times in my life, when I have not given an any kind of answer and that makes it look like I am either agreeing with the person or easy to step on for them to get their own way
Jesus says this in Mathew 15:28-30 Come to me, all you that are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light...
Preserving the message of Jesus Christ, also is to preserve the relationships of our families and those around us. They go hand in hand. And sometimes we take them for granted, because of our own anger.
If your yoke is heavy due to the conversations that are affecting your daily life, learn from the Best. Jesus only needs to be asked. And he will give you the answers you need to deal with those in your life that complicate it with misery because they are always right and everyone else is always wrong. Oh, they might not change overnight, but gradually as you seek God's wisdom, they begin to. And I will take that over nothing in hopes of gaining changes in their attitudes.
Thanks for coming today Friend. Have a blessed Saturday!
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