Guard Your Precious Salt

"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."  (Matthew 5:13, NIV)

"Do not give to dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do. they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces." (Matthew 7:6, NIV)

In biblical times, salt was very precious. Besides serving as a valuable preservative, salt adds flavor and enjoyment to food. You, too have a precious flavor you add to the world, the essence of who you are and how God has formed you.

In their book, Boundaries (Zondervan Publishing House, 1992), Christian psychologists Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend say we all have three treasures that make us "us":

our feelings (emotions, intuition, needs, enjoyments, interests),

our attitudes (beliefs, opinions, likes/dislikes, values, goals),

our behaviors (character traits, work habits, morality).

These three treasures are like salt that gives us the flavor we contribute to the world. When touched by the Master’s hand, they become a precious part of His plan and purpose. Because they are precious, they are to be protected through our diligent stewardship. We guard them by setting healthy boundaries and limits that let the good in and keep the bad out. They are like precious pearls, and we are not to give people license to trample them underfoot (Matthew 7:6).

If our boundaries were violated through long-term abuse, we may feel like we have lost ourselves and don’t know who we are anymore. What we may have lost are our three treasures. God can restore them, though. Like silver cleaned of its tarnish in a refiner’s fire, the Holy Spirit can make our treasures shine for Him again (Zechariah 13:9).  This may include a process of learning to exercise our three treasures and to set healthy boundaries around them.  It may be a process of learning to balance godly submission with godly boundary-setting, so that we can walk in the truth of God's Word.  

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Have you had an abuser who attacked any of your treasures mentioned above? Give an example of how they did it.
  2. How might God use a Christian’s treasures listed above to influence the world for Him?
  3. Have you ever had difficulty in balancing godly submission with godly boundaries?  What kind of dilemmas has this posed for you?

Copyright 2005   Judy Kennedy