Unfiltered Salt

“I am biblical salt, baby. Biblical salt.”

“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 NIV 

Fair warning: I’m about to get a little geeky on you. 

Table salt, that you use nowadays to season your food, is 100% sodium chloride. There are no imperfections, no opportunity for it to not taste like salt, it is its truest form. It is salt, salt, salt. Biblical salt? Not so much. 

Salt from biblical times that was used to preserve or season, had to be harvested from marshes or evaporated from seawater, so after the salt was used, impurities were left behind that were good for absolutely nothing. They were thrown out. They couldn’t be used as fertilizer & they didn’t decompose. Literally useless. 

With that tidbit of knowledge, we’ve started the new school year and, to put it mildly, it’s chaos. I have a high schooler and two middle schoolers. We are in a frantic RUSH every morning to make sure we don’t forget anything that day for academics or athletics. 

The other morning, I had a “mom moment”. You know what I’m talking about… a moment where it all comes to a head, with the rushing, not getting chores done, bickering back and forth. After I got the kids on the bus, I texted my husband: “I’m the mayor of Rantville, and we just had a ‘town meeting’.” 

I was frustrated and defeated. 

I went off on a rant about the things they need to help with, and included my frustrations. I gave them a good dose of salt, but not the pure kind. I am biblical salt, baby. Biblical salt. I didn’t filter out the salt that was Jesus-filled, life giving, teachable for that moment. I used the whole lot of it. The useless thrown in too. 

I wish I had some profound wisdom here, but we’re in the throes of this learning and filtering of the salt together. I learn by listening and watching the moms who, in that moment, have their salt filters on. That brings me to pause to think of the moms in my life that are doing the same at the very moments that I am. That I can glean from the Christian, Jesus-chasing mamas around me that are using the good salt and throwing out the useless. 

Let’s practice filtered, biblical salt by praying over our words and asking the Holy Spirit to be in between us and whomever it is we’re speaking to. Let’s introduce the mayor of Rantville to the mayor of Saltville.

Prayer: Oh Father, help me to tame my tongue. Help me to filter the salt that gives life, glorifies You, and brings peace. I need the ultra filter, please and thank You. I need to get in a practiced rhythm of filtering before I’m in a situation that needs to be filtered. Let others see You, hear You, in my words. Amen. 

Written by Abbey, currently running for mayor of Saltville

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