[Darris McNeely] A few days ago, my wife and I were at home during lunchtime and she said, "Let's make lunch. Let's have toasted cheese sandwiches." I said, "Great." And then as we began to put it all together, I said, "Honey, we've got some shallots, very small onions. Let's slice them real thin. Let's cook them down and caramelize them, and put them on the cheese sandwich, and make an extra special one this time." So we did. And as we began to cook those shallots up, as you know, with the smell of onions or shallots, it begins to fill the whole kitchen in the house. It's really a very subtle and too sharp, very pungent odor, and smell, and aroma that goes throughout the house with the cooking of onions or shallots like that. We made a great toasted cheese sandwich

. As I was looking at a Scripture, I made a connection to a shallot, to cooking onions and a toasted cheese sandwich in a statement that the Apostle Paul makes in Colossians 4:6, where Paul is talking about how we talk to one another. And he said, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt. You may know how to answer each one. Grace seasoned with salt. Let your speech be with grace, seasoned with salt." It's a fascinating verse that I've always pondered over. And looking at it recently, I gained a different perspective on it because one of the definitions in the Bible helps that I looked up on this particular verse used this in a term called hallowed pungency. Hallowed pungency, grace seasoned with salt, kind, soothing, helpful, graceful words, seasoned with a pungent salt if you will. And salt has that ability and other seasonings as well.

Paul uses salt here. I used onions, I used shallots to create a pungency. And it will never be the same again. I will think about this verse because our words and how we speak to one another should be like this, with grace, but to the point. They should be distinctive. They should be something that draws us to something that is good, in terms of the insight, the help, the comfort, the encouragement that we give to one another by speaking words, sentences, conversations with grace, seasoned with salt. Think about that.

Grace is God's gift. Grace is God's forgiveness and mercy to us. As we think about that in our speech to one another, we think of people, and conversations, and words of encouragement or affirmation that lift us, encourage us, and help us along the way. But sometimes that has to be done with a pungency, with a directness that is cushioned with that grace, to know that the other person has our best interest at heart.

And so as we think about that, as we speak to one another, what Paul is telling us, "Always be graceful. Always speak with love, but also speak truth. Speak it in a way that helps and creates that atmosphere within people's lives." It's an important lesson. I learned it by making a toasted cheese sandwich with some caramelized shallots one day. It's kind of an interesting way to make a connection, but I think it works with what Paul is trying to get across to us in this very interesting verse. Speaking grace, seasoned with salt.

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