Salt and Light

Matthew 5:13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men...vs 16 In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

It was wonderful to be back at Timothy Christian School. I love walking up and down the halls of school and watching the kids scurry to their classrooms. I love the smell of pencils being sharpened, and the sound of lockers opening as kids unpack their back packs. I even love the sound of the school bell signaling the start of the day!

I felt God laying on my heart a talk about being the "salt of the earth," for today's chapel message. The theme this year for the Elementary School is a Lighthouse...Let your light shine before men! All the walls showcase lighthouses in New Jersey and around the shores of the United States.

So today, I brought in some pretzels, crackers, and my favorite, potato chips! I had each teacher (there were 6 homerooms...about 100+ kids) send up a taste tester. It was up to the children to figure out what ingredient was in all of the items they were tasting. After the pretzel, a very bright, beautiful, Asian girl shouted out, "Salt!" Well, there went my taste testing! All the teachers laughed...what a smarty! The kids loved being able to eat in chapel though!

As I read our verse in Matthew for the day I had the kids answer some questions about salt. What does salt do to food? What is it's purpose? The kids were so responsive and enthusiastic...that always encourages me when I am speaking, if I see the kids understanding what I am teaching and they are getting excited about what they are learning, it just makes it all the more enjoyable! Kind of like tonight when Julia and I were reading books before bedtime and she was pointing to all the pictures and labeling each one with her words! It was so awesome! There is nothing like learning...it is contagious. And learning about God's Word is such an added bonus because it transforms your life and renews your way of thinking.

Then we talked about how salt refers to the way we are supposed to be attracting non-believers. The children were giving me great examples of how we can point those who don't know about Jesus to come to know Him. Be kind, showing love, being helpful...

Then I read the next part of the verse, "but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?" I gave the example that whenever you flavor your food with salt it comes to be the best part of the dish, and how whenever Julia eats a cracker or a chip the first thing she does is licks off all the salt...it's the best part to her! We talked about the possible ways we as Christians might lose our flavor...and the ultimate answer was SIN. I shared with them the promise of 1 John 1:9, one of my favorite verses about if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to cleanse us and forgive us...I told them that then God separates our sins as far as the east is from the west, and of course all the kids went "Whoa!" As if that were the first time they ever heard that, maybe it was, and that it was so profound and amazing to them! Kids are great! No wonder Jesus wants us to come to him like a child, children are so trusting and a lot more willing to listen to God's Word than some jaded by the world adults are.

Then I used an illustration about my bookshelves (heehee) They were so cluttered, and so jammed with unusable things that were really garbage. Because of all the garbage I had no place for my new books or the good things I wanted to showcase. So I needed to get rid of the garbage before I could have room to put the good things on my shelves. I told them that is what our hearts/lives are like. We sometimes have so much garbage or sin, or bad behavior, bad attitudes, laziness, whatever it is that keeps us from the purpose that God has designed for us and until we get rid of it we will have no room for the good things in store that God has for us! We need to confess our sins and be free from the "garbage" so that we can be the "salt of the earth" and lead others to Jesus. Then we talked about how reading God's Word, and prayer are so important because they help us to grow closer to God so we can learn from Him and be more like Him!

So I ended my time with showing them a huge container of salt and told them that the next time the eat something salty or see salt they need to remember that we are called to be the "salt of the earth!" I told them all to go and be salty today!

After we dismissed the classes back to their classrooms, the Kindergartners from Mrs. Duque's class all came over and hugged me and thanked me for coming today. It was so sweet! They were all so small compared to the third and fourth graders I'm used to teaching. What a blessing it was to share God's Word and be invited to do so!

Lord help me to be salty today!