Salty potato chips, salty popcorn, and salty pretzels… Apart from the salt, what do they all have in common?

Did you think of getting thirsty when you eat them? Enjoy eating a large bag of one of these salty foods, then ask your children if they are thirsty. Read Matthew 5:13-16 with them.

God wants us, as Christians, to be salty so that others will thirst for God as they see our behavior. Sometimes salt is used for healing. Have you or your children ever soaked an injured foot in epsom salt water?

Share with your children, too, about how salt is often used for preservation of foods to keep them from spoiling. If you live in an area that knows what fat-back is, or beef jerky, or country ham, you might use one or all of them as examples of how salt is used to preserve foods. Pickles are another example of a food that uses salt to preserve them.

To demonstrate the second part of the Bible passage, shine a very bright flashlight into a dark room or closet. Does the light help them to see what is in the room? Now cover the light bulb end of the flashlight with a bowl shaped container or a pillow. Ask the children if the light helps them to see in the dark room now?

Much like with the salt, the light that shines out of our lives when we please God causes other people to want to praise God too. When we do good deeds we encourage people to praise God.

Read the Bible verses Matthew 5:13-16 with your children. Then pray with them asking God to help each of you to be as salt and light to the people around you.

By Janice D. Green, author of The Creation and The First Christmas