Salty Attitudes: Preserving Nothing, Ruining Your Witness

God said, “Be the salt of the earth” — but He wasn’t talking about your attitude!

In this episode, we discuss our attitudes and how they affect others. We look into the Bible for examples where an attitude ruined God’s witness, unpack the science behind the effects of bad attitudes, and hear from God about how it breaks His heart. Raw confession. Real science. Hardy Talks. Just conviction, grace, and a way out.

Season the world with hope, not gripe.

Preserve your witness.

Stay real.

#HardyTalks #badmood #badattitude #attitudeiseverything #ChristianPodcast #RawRealFaith  #PreservePurpose

[00:00] Are You Salty or the Salt of the Earth?
[01:45] How My Salty Attitude Ruined a Friends Faith
[05:06] Martha's Bad Attitude Drowned Out Mary's Worship
[08:16] The Older Brother's Rage Destroyed Hope
[12:33] How Bad Attitudes Are Contagious Poison
[19:37] Season the World with Hope, Not Gripe

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You know, when God said be the salt of the earth, he was not talking about y'all's attitudes. Let's let's be real. Let's be real. And I'm talking to myself here. God said, be salt to preserve and flavor the world. But too many of us are just salty, preserving nothing but ruining everything with a bad attitude. We're out here complaining like it's our spiritual gift. We're turning the blessings of God into burdens and making Jesus look like a bad boss, like someone not worth following. Think about it. That complaint at church, complaining about the pastor, that sigh at a work meeting, complaining about new responsibility, that post on Facebook where you're just venting about everything that's wrong in your life. It's all salt without flavor. It's rotting your reputation and ruining God's glow. And again, I'm talking myself here because when we get when we get frustrated, we say things, and I love these. We say things like, well, when it rains, it pours. Or my favorite is, well, if it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all. Or if it ain't one thing, it's another. You know. These aren't just cute little sayings. They are sermons you preach to yourself, and the entire world is taking notes. Let's let's let's be real. Let's be real. Now, this is something I struggle with horribly. I'm a very emotional creature and I can be easily booty. And and to make matters even worse, uh because contrary to this podcast, I hate talking to people. I can I can post on Facebook all day long, but let someone call my phone and I literally want to throw it. I I I I just can't I can't stand talking to people. I I'm I'm a very introverted type of person, and Lord behold, if I'm exhausted, sleepy, or don't feel good. I have to be very self-aware and conscious because if someone comes up to me at work and asks a question, like I especially if it's a stupid one, I I want to bite their head off. I I struggle with that. And if if I don't really protect my tongue, I will end up just being evil, slashing out. But I can I can I can think of one story in particular where th this one time there was a new guy in my church and me and him actually went way back. Well he struggled with depression and loneliness too to the extreme. And he found he's he found his way to church honestly just seeking hope. But he was constantly complaining about all his problems, his depression, how he he's all alone, he wants to get married, you know, that old chestnut. Well, every time I got around him, that's all he wanted to talk about. It was it was draining, honestly. Well, one night we were going to going out to eat and he brought up this girl and started going on about some things he's been struggling with, you know, the same old stuff. And I spoke some hard truth to him. But but my attitude was sour because I I was tired of his negativity and all of his excuses. And I'm not trying to act like I was some wise person that just had the answers he needed. No, no, that that wasn't it at all. It's just I have been in very similar shoes as him, and I needed someone to speak that hard truth to me. But my whole point was missed because I over-seasoned it with a salty attitude. Actually, I wasn't even seasoning, I was scorching it. The point was missed, his hope was crushed, and I didn't just ruin dinner, I may have killed his faith. He's not even coming to church anymore. Regardless if I was the direct cause, there was a little there was a time gap in between that conversation and him leaving, but I may have been the catalyst that started killing that hope and faith he was searching for. And that that's what salty attitudes do. They preserve nothing, but they ruin everything. Destroy it. Well, that's my bad attitude on full display. But what is salt supposed to do? We have been using salt for thousands of years because salt preserves meat by preventing rot. It's also it also flavors food and it sparks hunger. That's why when you eat something salty, you just you crave more. But salty attitudes, they rot relationships and they make Jesus taste terrible. Why why why do I want that God? Look at this guy. Look at this so-called Christian. I don't want anything to do with that. Well, we know we don't know what salt is supposed to do, but what examples did God give us? And one of my favorite is in the book of Luke. It's Luke chapter 10, verses 38 through 42. We we have Jesus and a bunch of disciples, and they're crashing at Martha's house. Well, Mary sits at Jesus' feet and is soaking up all his wisdom. While on the other hand, Martha is solo in the kitchen cooking for everyone. Well, Martha gets mad. She starts fuming, her pots are clinging, steam's rising, attitudes boiling over, and she goes to Jesus and says, Lord, don't you care that Mary left me to do all this by myself? I'm up in here slaving all along while she's sitting here just listening. Tell her to come in here and help. You see, it's not just the words. Her tone drips with resentment. She she's echoing through the entire house. The disciples see Jesus' teaching, but they hear Martha's yelling. And you have to imagine, instead of them thinking, wow, Jesus brings peace, they probably think his followers are all stressed-out complainers. Whew. You see, Mary's and Mary's worship gets drowned out by all that kitchen drama. And God's goodness looks like a burden, not a blessing. That's this is the kind of attitude that creates a ripple effect. You can probably imagine that future stories spread from all the disciples saying, Don't visit those sisters, one's always mad at the world. And Jesus says to her, Martha, listen, hon, you're worried about so many things, but there is only one thing that actually matters. Why don't you focus on the proper things? And Martha's bad attitude could have ruined the entire witness of God because everyone in that room may have left with the impression that followers of Jesus don't have true peace. That's that's the problem with a bad attitude. It it creates a bad impression on people. Another good story is in Luke 15, we have the story of the prodigal son. We are we all familiar with that story. But what about his older brother? You see, the younger son blows all of it, his inheritance, all kinds of debauchery. He hits rock bottom and crawls home. The dad, though, he doesn't just forgive him, but he decides to throw an absolute rager. He was so happy that his his lost son is home. The dad cooks a fattened calf, he gives gifts to the son, everyone's playing music, they're all dancing. I mean, it was a huge celebration. Yet, during all this time, while the while the sun was gone, his older brother has been loyal. He has been slaving away in the fields, never disobeying. And you have you have to imagine. I mean, let's put this in perspective. The older brother has been in the field since the sun came up. He is drenched in sweat. He is exhausted. His back is still screaming from the day before, yet he has been out there torturing himself again. Well, he's walking home from the field that night and he's hearing music just banging and smells a fat ribeye steak on the grill. And a servant runs up to him and tells him that his little brother has returned and your dad is throwing a party because of his safe return. He he probably yells, What? You have to be kidding me. Now the older the older brother stops dead in his tracks and just he's just consumed with anger and jealousy. He's literally talking out loud with anger, just mummering about all these years I've played for dad, but never once. I mean, never once did I even get a goat, let alone a calf, but even a goat cooked for me and a party for me and all my friends. Yet, this filthy sinner, he comes home and dad throws him a big party. You have to understand, he is probably just overwhelmed with rage and a bad attitude towards this. And to make it even worse, the older brother refuses to go inside. He would rather stand outside in the dark, arms crossed, talking to himself, sulking like a toddler. He doesn't want no part of it. His attitude is clear. His dad comes out eventually and begs the son, come in, please, son, come in and enjoy the party with us. Well, the son gets fired back up again and says, Dad, look, I've been the one here actually breaking my back to help you keep food on the table while while he ran away and disowned all of us. Yet, yet, he walks back in and you immediately celebrate. Where's my party? Where's my appreciation? This is this is not fair. I deserve better. God's grace is wasted on him. You know, the servants and guests inside probably overhear all the shouting that's going on outside. And it wouldn't be any surprise to me that they thought to themselves, man, this family is a mess. The father's love just causes fights and chaos. And the older brother probably, I mean not the older brother, but the younger brother probably heard all of it as well. He just came back, he's hit rock bottom, he's searching for hope. And he hears his old brother talking like that. And you can imagine that his faith and joy that was just reignited by his father's grace and mercy could have been easily destroyed by his brother's attitude. That's that's the damage attitudes can have. Well, that's some biblical stories, but this goes beyond theology because even science just shows us what a bad attitude can do. You see, studies at Yale, UCLA, and many others show that mirror neurons fire when we observe emotions. So, to dumb that down, basically, someone's bad attitude is like emotional Bluetooth. Get close to it and we connect. Automatically, we connect to it. You see, research confirms that a bad attitude can infect others in seconds through brain mirroring. If you don't believe me, look it up. You Google it. Don't let me be your source. But this brain mirroring in group settings, it is magnified and it escalates. Your office gripe and complaint sessions can turn an entire team toxic. I I've seen this at my own job where we had one that was just so overwhelmed with not being able to get a promotion or whatever it is, and a lot of it was stuff at home, but they just turned toxic and started complaining about every little thing. And before I knew it, the whole team was sour. You see, mirroring the misery is like a bad echo. This is this further is proved by uh Harvard because Harvard explains that chronic stress, like complaining, floods the body with cortisol. This is the hormone that preps the body for fight or flight. But when it is overproduced, it leads to anxiety, high blood pressure, and much more. Over time, it even weakens the immune system. Immune system, can't talk right, but bye-bye. But literally, our bad attitudes can make us sick. That that there is why being around certain negative people for too long, you leave the conversation just drained. But go on, even further research, it shows that the this one here is powerful, but the Gottman Institute found that five positive interactions are needed to undo just one negative interaction. That means being around one salty, negative, nasty attitude takes five good attitudes to fix. Your salty rant literally creates homework for the Holy Ghost. Not to mention all the destruction in between. And according to science, your salty attitude is literally contagious poison. You're not just venting, you're infecting. Not only are you ruining your day, you're also ruining your re your witness. Science proves it. Heaven feels it. You see, God's not silent about attitudes either. How does He feel? Well, God literally tells us to listen up. I ain't neutral on this salty crap. I didn't sprinkle you into this world to wine and wilt. I gave you flavor. Don't waste it on whining. I saved you to season others, not to sour the souls I send your way. Let's look at some examples that backs that up. You have Matthew 5.13. It says, You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under. Good for nothing. You see, God is calling you essential like salt in a survival kit. But when you lose flavor to complaints, you're sidelined, you're thrown out. It hurts him because he designed you for impact, not irrelevance. Imagine crafting a masterpiece, then watching it rust in resentment. That's God's frustration. Wasted potential in the world that needs some flavor savor. Then you have Colossians 4 and 6. It says, Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. That word always, it says, means no days off. God feels disappointed when your words lack grace because they're meant to draw people in, not drive them off. Picture him as a chef. He seasons you perfectly and sweet, but you dump in sour bitterness, and that ruins the entire dish. God's heart is longing for your conversations to make outsiders hungry for heaven, not hesitant. Then I got two more examples. I just want you to get a full grasp about how God feels. Philippians 2 14 through 15. Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. You see, God's mindset here is of a proud parent. Grumbling dims your light, and that saddens God because the world's dark enough. He feels the pain of missed opportunities. Instead of stars guiding lost ships, you're just another cloud. Your saltiness blocks his glory, turning, look at God to look away. And last but not least, Ephesians 4, 29 through 30. It says, Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building up others according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Phew. Wow. It literally says that attitudes and our bad conversations literally grieves the Holy Spirit. It makes God sad on a deep level. Why? Because it tears down what he's building up. Imagine sending a gift with love, then watching it get trashed. His feeling on it all, deep sorrow mixed with holy urgency, because your witness is his seal and saltiness destroys it. How can we do better? Well, sleep, obviously. David's David slept before he slew Goliath. You're not slaying giants on four hours of sleep and three Red Bulls. You've got to aim for seven to eight hours. That way you wake up preserved, not prickly. You can set a bedtime alarm and treat rest as worship because being sleepy and tired that amplifies our bad attitude. We need to recharge to reflect Christ. What else can you do? You can catch the crumble. Every time you feel salty, say out loud or under your breath, this preserves nothing. This preserves nothing. This stops the negative spiral before it starts. You can also find some flavor. For every complaint, name one thing God preserved in your life. Like, for example, you can say, I'm broke, but bills are paid and I have a roof over my head. Doing this builds your gratitude muscles. That way you're not just constantly in a bad attitude. Another good tool is to season someone else. Text or call or tell one person daily, or when you're feeling in a bad mood that, hey man, hey, hey, you're seen. You matter. You're doing great. I've been watching you and I'm proud of you. Just anything like this. Even when you don't feel like it, you literally can fake it until faith makes it. Besides that, pre-grain, pre-game your mouth. Pray before you start your day. That's the best way to make sure you don't have a bad attitude. It's ask God to help you keep your speech inviting instead of destroying. Just just pray. Now, let's be real and let's cut the excuses. You know the stories. You felt the burn. Science says your salt spreads poison. God says it grieves him. Your next complaint isn't just words, it's a weapon. It doesn't fix a thing. It doesn't preserve a soul. It only ruins your witness and rots the room. Jesus didn't hang naked, bleeding, gasping for air for you to whine about traffic. He didn't crush death so you could crush hope with a sigh. He rose so you could rise, as salt that saves, not sours. If our attitude is louder than our faith, then you're not following Jesus. You're fighting him. So let's salt the world with flavor seasoned by hope. And just remember stay real.