Salt Dissolves

You know how sometimes you are reading something, or listening to something, and it causes a random chain of thought that results in an aha! moment? Well, I had one of those today.

For as far back as I can remember, when it was raining, or I was going to get wet some other way that I didn't really want to, Daddy would tell me "you won't melt"- a common saying. He would finish, though, with "sugar melts - salt dissolves". I never could decide if that was a nonsensical comment, an insult, or a compliment. As a child I mostly thought it was silly. In the midst of typical teen angst I thought he might mean I wasn't sweet, which, if you knew my Dad, you'd know how ridiculous that thought was since he was always encouraging and proud of us.
As an adult, he would still occasionally say it to me and I always puzzled over exactly what he meant. Asking would have been a great, logical idea - but I never did. I'll have to wait until I join him in Heaven to ask now (he's been there several years) but today something occurred to me as I was reading how we are supposed to be the salt of the Earth. Daddy thought I was salt! Not sugar which melts (disappears, loses outline or distinction) but salt that dissolves (causes to disperse, clear up, pass into). Not sugar that tends to add to or cover up the natural flavor of something, but salt which preserves, accents, and heightens the natural flavor of it. Daddy knew that my personality was not sweet (I'm not unkind or anything, but no one who knows me would say "she's so sweet"). And, just maybe, he saw in me what I would later find out was one of my spiritual gifts - discernment (clear up). I'd like to think so. That means all along it was a complement and/or a blessing and/or a challenge. He knew my "don't tell me I can't do something" (as in unable to, too little to, not strong enough to, etc.) attitude very well.

Obviously I don't know for sure what he was thinking or why he said it. All I know is, that since it dawned on me that it may have meant something really significant and encouraging, I'm having trouble not running around like Rudolph when he finds out Clarice thinks he's cute. Inside I'm running around going I'm salt, I'm salt, he thinks I'm salt!