Like Honey

Every year when she goes back home my sister brings me a bottle of honey. There is nothing like Jamaican honey; it has a distinctive flavour and sometimes I think it might be part of my DNA. This morning as I spread a dollop of this year's honey on my bread I thought about how honey gets its flavour...from the nectar bees extract from flowers.

There are many different kinds/flavours of honey based on what flowers bees gather their nectar from. What the bees ingest determines the flavour of the honey they produce. You need only taste buckwheat honey to know that this is true. I can only imagine what eucalyptus honey tastes like.

This made me think about how what I ingest determines the flavour of what I produce. That made me think about a number of Scripture verses...

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Psalm 119:103

It also made me think about what I would like to flavour what I produce. I believe Galatians 5:22-23 says it all...

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

This week I will endeavour to choose carefully what I ingest so that what I produce will be sweet to all who receive it.