Honey vs. Vinegar

Sometimes a gentle approach can be much more effective when sharing our faith.

A few weeks ago, my hubby and I were shopping at Sam’s Club. I love that store. There are always so many cool things to look at when I’m there.

This particular time, there was a salesperson trying to sell a satellite service. This woman was like a bulldog. The first thing she asked was who our cable television was with. She then proceeded to tell us how much we paid and how her service was so much better. She was in our faces and in our personal space. We couldn’t get away from her fast enough.

As we browsed our way through the store, we wound up in the deli section. There was a Sam’s employee there, rearranging some of the bread. There was a flat bread that my hubby and I were discussing trying. The woman looked over and told us how good it was. She said that when they were doing a demonstration on it, that the employees kept sneaking over to get more, even thought they weren’t supposed to. She told us how she had seen it prepared and that it was delicious. Then she went on about her business.

We bought some of that flat bread and let me tell you, it’s become a delicacy in our house. My entire family loves it and can’t get enough of it. We’ve even made a special trip out to Sam’s to purchase more.

I have been  thinking about the two approaches of those women as well as my reaction to them. That first woman could have been handing out pure gold and I would have missed it because I was so turned off my her approach.

The second woman could have been peddling garbage, but she was so humble and soft-spoken about it, I probably would have given it a try.

Those two women reminded me of how we choose to share Jesus with others. Knowing Him is exciting. Knowing we get to spend eternity with Him in heaven is exciting. Knowing that death isn’t the end for us is exciting. It’s good to be excited about Jesus, but sometimes in our excitement, we can get aggressive like the first salesperson.

In our excitement to share and bring others to Christ, we can invade personal space and even get loud and pushy. Unfortunately, we can push people away from Jesus instead of guiding and pulling them towards Him, even though that wasn’t the intention.

Sometimes the best course is to act like the second salesperson. Share our personal experience. Invite others to try it and then back away.

Because the thing is, the bread we are trying to share, never runs out and I think it’s certainly worth taking a more careful approach when we talk with people about something as important as eternity.

My mama always said you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Perhaps that applies with faith sharing too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂