Candy

What is not to like about Candy? It’s sweet, colourful and made from a very cheap ingredient sugar. Sometimes when I think about candy I’m reminded of that song “A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. Of course, that was written when medicine usually tasted awful and the only way to convince most people to take it was to tell them that no pain meant no gain. In other words, the worst the taste the better it healed or something like that.

These days medicine has been made to taste better and the nicer flavours means that most people are willing to take medicine especially children.

As I thought about Candy, and I had to think hard, I wondered about other things that we like to sweeten. Some things are distasteful for us. It is often distasteful for us to be confronted by someone who is telling us some unpleasant truth about ourselves or where we have hurt someone, intentional or not it makes us uncomfortable. That’s why we often tell people that there is a tough pill to swallow.

I also thought about how Nathan rebuked David. How he was able to tell David the truth in a loving and sweetened way (2 Samuel 12). When we have to confront people about challenging issues do we go the God first and ask Him to guide us in how we approach someone. I have known some people who will just wade in boots and all.

Let’s try and add some sweetness when telling people difficult things and not just dish up nasty tasting medicine.