You Make the World Delicious!

Dinner and dessert

Well, Friend, if you need an interpreter of teenage vernacular, I may be able to help. Though I cannot speak the language fluently, I live in a house with three teenagers.  I understand the words enough to get by.
Lit - an adjective meaning really cool.
High-key - an adverb meaning very or really. Example- I high-key like that dress.
Low-key - an adverb  meaning a little bit.  Replace with low-key if you just like it a little.

If you are told by a teen you are being “salty”, it is not a compliment.  It means you are being grouchy or speaking with a bad attitude.  If my daughter says, “Mom, why are you being so salty?”, I have either just said “no” or I really am irritated about something and it's coming through in my voice.  

Guess what? When God calls you salty, it IS a compliment.  You were made to be salty. Salt makes so many things so much better.  Of course, that reminds me of you.

Off the top of my head, I think of gargling salt water for a sore throat, de-icing roads and sidewalks in a winter storm and of course, FOOD. Salt makes everything taste better, even things you would never expect like chocolate chip cookies.  It seems to be in every recipe. Ok, not all, but most.  If it is not included, it changes the entire outcome of your food for the worse.  

Meats, vegetables, desserts - potatoes, steak, corn - all better with salt.

But notice, salt is not meant to be alone. No one goes out to dinner and orders a big slab of salt. If you go to a steakhouse, salt is the one thing that brings out the best flavor in everything you might order.  

Sometimes salt is meant to be in the background making things better even though you don't realize it is there, like in cookies or cakes.  Other times, the world is well aware of the wonderful flavor that salt brings to an item, like bacon or potato chips.  

Friend, you make the world better. I know you don't even realize most of the time. But it is true.  You are essential to the “recipe” for this particular time.  Your life impacts the people around you.  

Every personality has a different purpose in making the world better.  It is easy to think the only “essential salt” has a big personalities or does a lot of philanthropy work.  That it simply not true!   I guarantee my oldest son does not think of himself as “essential salt”.  He has always been an observer. He would be considered pretty quiet most of the time.  He never draws attentions to himself.  He is also logical and stable (“even” is a better word - never gets overly emotional). He is also accepting/not judgmental. He is the supervising umpire for our local little league baseball.  God made him the perfect kind of “salt” for this job. He not only trains and encourages the younger umpires in their job, but he handles the conflicts of controversial calls as well as angry coaches and parents who think screaming at a little league rec ball game is appropriate. It would not be an easy job for most people. He absolutely loves it.  Whether he realizes it or not, he is “essential salt” to our family, our local little league, our community and the many other people he encounters regularly.

(It's hard to believe my son doesn't want me take his picture in an umpire's mask )

My friend, you are also that very essential salt of the earth.  You were created to make everything around you better.  The bible verse I'm pulling this from goes on to talk about salt that loses its saltiness being useless. (Matthew 5:13) .  We are not going there, because that is not you. If you are tempted to just become useless & selfish …. Don't! That is all I am saying to you about that.  It is just not an option.  You are too important to the rest of us.  We need you to make our recipe better.

Someone you may know or even someone you do not know yet, needs you today.  

A smile or friendly greeting at the grocery store

A positive post on Facebook

A text to a friend who has been on your mind.

In big ways, like bacon, or in little ways, like cookies, you are the salt that is essential to making the lives of those around you better.  

Never Forget the Truth: You are the salt of the earth.  Your very being makes the world better.