July 5: HONEY OR POISON?

I just read something scary and strange. Did you know the honeybee makes her honey from exactly the same nectar from which the hermit spider distills one of the deadliest poisons known? The honeybee’s makeup allows her to produce honey, while the hermit spider’s allows her to produce poison. Only one can bring a smile to the lips of a child.
There is a great lesson here: we can treat each opportunity as success or failure, joy or sadness. It all depends on what we do with life.
What are you producing, honey or poison? No two people respond exactly the same way to the same opportunity. That’s clear. (Equally true is the fact that no two churches respond the same way to the same opportunities, because churches, consisting of people, have personalities, too.) But the long-range effect of your response is that in producing poison you may do such lasting harm that people can’t recover. Maybe you learned to be a “poison producer” from your parents, and look how it has troubled you. You could break the pattern.
Being a honey producer is a much-needed talent. Here is a helpful idea. David, in Psalms 19:9-10 says, “the ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.”
Filter all of your feelings through the truth of God’s Word. It can remove all the poison so you will not hurt or destroy any of your relationships. “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” (Proverbs 16:24 NIV) There is an interesting episode in 1 Samuel 14 where the King’s son, Jonathan, ate some honey directly from the comb, and it “brightened his eyes”.
See how many faces you can brighten today, no matter what happens. Let someone else spread the poison, if they must.

“How sweet it is, Dear Lord, when people allow Your love to sweeten
their disposition and they spread it to everyone like perfume. Amen”