Of Garlic Salt and Grace

 By Jessica Edwards

“Eww, what's that smell?”, asked a young girl as she passed me in the spice aisle. My daughter and I had stopped to shop at Ollie's Bargain Outlet, and I was perusing the spice aisle where I had picked up a large container of garlic salt, another of garlic powder, and finally a small container of celery seed (it's great in slaw!). I thought nothing of the young girl's comment because we were on the stinky spice aisle, but the longer I shopped, the more pronounced the smell of garlic became. 

I looked at the tops of my garlic salt and garlic powder containers and even unscrewed the lids to make sure they were sealed. Yep, they looked good. At some point while browsing the candy aisle, my daughter joined me and said, “Mom, I smell garlic”. I told her I had already checked the lids on my containers, and they were fine. We proceeded to mosey about the store before finally deciding to pay for our purchases and head home. 

 

So What About Grace? 

In Colossians 4:5-6 (ESV), Paul instructs us to “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”

Hmm, my speech always be gracious and seasoned with salt?... but what if it's garlic salt? What if I pour on the garlic salt and forget the grace? I'm supposed to be walking in wisdom towards the unsaved (outsiders), and they are supposed to see grace and experience that seasoning, purifying effect of salt, but what if my speech (which includes what I type) is just stinky and repulsive? How do I respond when the subject of politics arises? Or religion? Or masks? Or vaccines?

Back to the Garlic Salt 

Now, let's go back to that day at Ollie's... My daughter and I stepped up to the checkout counter where I began to unload my arms of purchases, and when I placed the garlic salt container on the counter, it was almost empty.  Seriously, it probably only had a tablespoon of garlic salt left in it (and it was a big container). The bottom of the container was busted, and I had been leaving a trail of garlic salt all over the store. I looked back at where I had been and yep, there was a whitish trail following me (it was a little thicker near the chocolates because it took me a minute to decide what I wanted). :)

Over the store intercom, we heard, "We need someone to look through the store and clean up garlic salt on the floor". It was in my purse, my shoe, and I even had a little pile collected in the fold of my jeans near my ankle. I had been making a mess and didn't even realize it.

Oh, my friends, let's not leave a marked trail of stinkiness behind us because of our ungracious words! Let's do leave a trail of grace and kindness to a watching world who needs Jesus.

Jessica Edwards is a wife and homeschool mom who loves Jesus and His Word. She lives in the beautiful North Georgia mountains where you can find her hiking or trying to grow veggies in her vegetable garden.