November 14, 2019
In a Pickle
Today is National Pickle Day: fun facts about pickles–you know they are cucumbers which have been soaked in water, vinegar and sugar, along with other flavors and spices. They can be traced back to 2030 BC, Cleopatra (the famous Egyptian queen) said her beauty was because of the pickles she ate, every year 5,200,000 pounds of pickles are eaten, and did you know there is a Kool-Aid pickle? It looks disgusting…
Most fruits and vegetables can be pickled–maybe you’ve had the spicy carrots that come with Mexican food? And there’s even pickled watermelon which sounds delicious. At the basic level, a pickle combines sour/salty/sweet flavors. How they exist at the same time is the magic.
James chapter 3 talks about salty vs fresh water–the chapter is about your speech, and how we often say we are Christians, but we don’t always talk that way. If we are Christians, we should always be positive, loving, encouraging, we’d never use bad words, hateful words or angry speech. Yeah, right. We are human and we mess up. But try and notice when you sound more like the world than the Bible.
9 We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people who were created in God’s likeness. 10 These praises and curses come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, this should not happen. 11 Do good water and bad water flow from the same spring? Of course not. 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree make olives? Or can a grapevine make figs? No, and a well full of salty water cannot give good water.
James 3:9-12 (ERV)
Dear Jesus, Forgive me for the awful things I said. Help me to watch my speech and to stop and think before I speak. Teach me to be more encouraging and loving to others in the words I say. Amen.
