Bread, Salt and Wine

We were recently invited to our son Matthew's apartment for a supper meal. We felt pretty honored to be the first people to have been invited to his soon-to-be home, which he will share with his bride Gabrielle. Neither of them have moved out of home yet but they rented an apartment a month before they are married so they would have time to get it set up as a home. They had been at the apartment, unpacking things, so they invited us to their first dinner party. 

Because this was an auspicious occasion we arrived armed with a housewarming gift of a loaf of French bread, a box of salt and a bottle of non-alcoholic wine. The two of them were puzzled when they saw our gifts until we explained that they were part of a blessing on their home. A loaf of bread: may they never know hunger. A box of salt: may they always season their words to each other. And a bottle of 'wine' that their house would always know joy. It might seem like a silly tradition but we take pronouncing a blessing to be a pretty serious thing. 

The Bible tells us that we either pronounce blessings or curses with our words (Proverbs 18:21, Matthew 12:37). Words can hurt or they can heal. Isn't it amazing that we have such power in our words? I think if we actually realized that power, we would be very careful in choosing our words. We have often pronounced blessings on our children as they grew up and I am thankful that they are living out those blessings. They are all serving the Lord and now our sons are about to be married to godly, young women and they in turn will be setting up Christian homes. Yes, blessings work. They're powerful.

We didn't have to take a housewarming gift to Matthew and Gabe's as their first dinner guests but I'm glad we did and I pray they remember the blessing we spoke over them and their home. My hope is that our children will pronounce blessings on their spouses and someday over their children too. Because they have seen the biblical examples of blessings, I know they will. 
Proverbs 13:2 From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things,