You know, I can still hear my grandmothers voice in my head every time something comes out of my mouth that’s not very kind. “You know you can catch more flies with honey “ she would always say. I knew what she meant even though at the time I may have grumbled under my breath and bulked. She was a wise woman and she knew the Lord and an important note was that she always guided us back there, back to the good and kind and sweet ways. If you don’t know what that term really means well I will tell you. It simply means that you can get farther in this life and endear more people to you if you use sweet words of kindness. Ugliness in our words and deeds will never win us any real friends.
Our lives should at every turn reflect kindness, generosity and draw others to desire to be in our company. When I was in middle school I remember well the “mean” girls. You know them, the ones who walked around with major attitudes and an angry look on their face always. If you so much as looked at them they would glare at you and say something like, “what are you looking at brat?” Now I’ve found as I have grown and matured that these girls were most likely hiding behind or masking some kind of pain that probably caused them to build a wall of “toughness” around themselves. All I knew then was that they were just mean and their words were unkind and I didn’t want to be around them at all. That’s what I’m talking about here. Bullies almost always do not draw friends but only swallow up the weak and spit them out eventually. Kindness is like a sweet honey that can flow out of our mouths. The Bible says in Proverbs, “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”.
One story that I think illustrates this philosophy best is one that my dear husband shared with me just recently. It seems there is a older gentleman that sets up to sell his wares at the local flea market that my husband sells at. This man sets up his entire table with nothing but jars of honey that he has harvested from his bee hives. That’s all he has, just jars of honey. Whenever someone would walk up to his table he would gently lean across and ask them, “ do you know Jesus my friend?” People would stand and talk with him for long periods of time or else they would scamper off like scalded dogs! My husband would sit and observe him wondering what he was talking so much about and yet hardly ever selling any honey. Well, hubby mustered up his boldness and approached the old gentleman’s table. The question was posed and they struck up a conversation. Now my better half knows Jesus very well but he was drawn somehow to the table of honey. After a while he asked the gentleman how his sales had been for the day as my husbands sales had not been good. The old man replied, “oh, I’m not really here to sell honey”. He smiled a broad smile and my husband knew exactly what he was there to do. He blessed the man and went back to his own table thinking to himself of the words of my grandmother.
You see, it’s true! It was a secret the old man at the table of honey knew. I’m sure he knew the verse in Proverbs that I previously quoted but he was walking it out. There were also quite a few “flies” around his table and whether they realized it or not there was something sweet that drew them there! How often can you go to a flea market and come away with hope, newness of life, kindness and compassion? And, how often do you have to spend zero dollars to get such a rich bundle of treasures. As Peter the apostle said, “ silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you”. Our words, our deeds our testimonies given and our kindnesses shared all speak of things that are far sweeter in value than things on this earth. I always thought that I didn’t have much to give but the story of the old man at the honey table certainly proves me wrong. We always have precious golden treasure to share if kindness will always flow from our lips.
