Does your love offer nourishment, promote health and healing? Or does it rot your teeth, destroy your immune system and leave you susceptible to death and disease? Honey represents truth in love. True love. Love that is genuine, open and honest. Corn syrup, maybe with a little color added, is meant to initially appear as truth, but isn’t truth. It might make you feel good at first when you get that sugar rush. But in the long run it will wear you down, drain your energy, diminish your health, and eventually, it could kill you.
Honey, real honey, is painstakingly made by bees. They collect nectar from flowers and carry it in their body’s back to the hive. Let’s stop there for just a second. Bees aren’t very big. If you think about it, how many trips back and forth must it take to collect even just a teaspoon of nectar? That’s a lot of work. So in the same way, love, true genuine love, is a lot of work to keep things going.
Once the bees get back to the hive, they then have to regurgitate the nectar. Which is kind of gross. I’m sorry. But sometimes, love can be gross too. Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to for the sake of those that we love, even when it’s gross.
Next, some other bees come along and they chew on the nectar until it becomes honey. Then they spit it out and use their wings like fans to help it dry down a bit. Again, gross and a lot of work. Then they repeat this process. Over and over, day after day, throughout their lives. Like this process, love, real love, must be worked on, day in and day out, for the rest of our lives.
After all of this hard, kind of disgusting, work that the bees do, the result is a thick, sweet, golden nectar fit for the utter enjoyment of everyone from the lowly peasant to the mightiest of rulers. Not is it just tasty, but honey also contains antioxidants, minerals and enzymes that promote health, reduce disease, and can further improve quality of life. Honey is used to soothe coughs, promote healing of burns, works in the body to reduce inflammation which reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer and autoimmune disorders. Some believe that honey can be used to reduce or eliminate some types of allergies.
Now, let’s take a look at corn syrup. Corn syrup, as the name implies, is product of corn. Corn crops are grown by farmers. The corn is harvested and through a process of separating cornstarch is made. The syrup is made by taking the corn starch and either heating it with dilute acid or by adding enzymes to it. Corn syrup is a simple sugar, pretty comparable to just regular sugar. The effects on the human body are comparable between sugar and corn syrup. And what does sugar do to the human body?
Sugar promotes inflammation. It increases your risk of obesity, liver problems, arthritis and diabetes, among many other issues. Sugar makes you feel hungrier, craving a nourishment it can never provide. These are all risks that come with corn syrup. Finding yourself unsatisfied, sick and hurting. How many times in life do we find ourselves feeling unsatisfied, sick and hurting? How are we to find our ideal life if what we are being fed is unsatisfying and harmful to us?
It doesn’t sound like a difficult decision does it? One path leads to health and nourishment and the other sickness and hunger. We might ask ourselves why would anyone choose the second path? Why would we choose to sickness and hunger when health and nourishment are within our reach? And yet everyday, there are people all over the place who are ‘surviving’ on just that in their relationships. Some may not even realize it.
When you are in a relationship that is overrun by lies, or manipulation or betrayal, how could you be certain that any ‘loving’ actions or interactions are honey for your soul rather than corn syrup? I don’t think that there is any way that you could be certain. Every action, every ‘loving’ gesture, would have to be weighed for the truth, and even then, could you really be assured that it was the truth?
As the relationship continues with corn syrup instead of honey, the feeling, the need to genuine love is going to grow. That need to receive true nourishment; to feel satisfied; is only going to become stronger, hungrier. It will wear you down, drain the life from your being, and leave you sick and hurting.
This is why it is so important that our love, that we give and receive, be based on the truth. We need the honey. Be authentic and genuine in your relationships. Cultivate your love. Carefully and consistently. Over and over. Day after day. Make the effort. Put in the time. Your efforts will not go unrewarded as your loving relationship provides nourishment, and promotes health and healing for yourself and those that you love.
If you are in a relationship fed with honey, stay encouraged. Keep up that good work. Don’t let yourself get lazy and try to substitute corn syrup. It’s not good for either of you. The health benefits of honey are clearly seen in the lives of those who have been happily married for 50, 60 or more years. It may not have always been easy, in fact, I would be surprised if they didn’t tell you that it was often difficult and there were times they wanted to choose an easier path, but I think they would also tell you, that choosing the harder path, choosing the honey, is worth every bit of effort that you put in.
Choosing the harder path, choosing the honey, is worth every bit of effort that you put in.
If you are in a relationship with corn syrup, you have some options. If this is not a romantic relationship, you can choose to make some changes, choose authenticity, choose honestly and see if you can make some honey. Or at any point you can choose to say, I’m not taking corn syrup when God made me to eat honey. And you can walk away. If this is a romantic relationship, you kind of have those same options. However, I would encourage you, if you have not walked down the aisle yet, for your own sake, don’t walk down the aisle for corn syrup. You were made for honey. You were made to give and receive nourishment, health and healing. Don’t settle for less. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get honey from that relationship someday. But don’t settle for corn syrup or that might be all you ever get. If you have made it down the aisle and you feel like your relationship is producing corn syrup, although again, you have those same options, I urge you not to despair. There’s still time. There are still options. Your relationship still has potential to produce honey again. Or maybe for the first time in some cases. It is my hope for you that your life would be filled with honey.
My best suggestions to you, if you are looking for the honey in your life, is a couple of things. First thing, be authentic and genuine in your love. However you give and express love. Just be genuine. Second thing, learn about love languages and love tanks. Find out what they are, what your love language is and how to better understand the love languages of others. And third, I encourage you, to open your heart to the love of God. Even when you are getting nothing but corn syrup from everyone around you, He will still give you the best honey you could ever receive. And that will carry you through despite all of corn syrup you might find around you. From my heart to yours.
I also highly recommend reading the book, The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
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