As many of you know, my Papa Billy Allen, is known around town as the “Honey Man”. His dedication to preserving honeybees in Moore County and the countless hours he has spent with bees is admirable. As his granddaughter, it has become hard for me to not also want to be involved in the honey production side of agriculture.

I am most certainly still in the beginner stages of my journey but the life lessons I have learned along the way from some of God’s tiniest creatures are ones I will carry forever. Honeybees are magnificent! They not only create a colony in which every bee works together for the greater good, but they help each other through the process. During a recent youth bee class that my Papa , daughter and I taught together, a child asked the question, “What happens if one of the bees gets stuck in the honey?” How many times have you been stuck in a sticky situation that seems as though you would never break free? It was a wonderful question from an innocent little heart and when she heard the answer, the grin on her face was proof that a little lesson was realized in that moment for her as well. When a bee gets stuck in honey, the other honeybees will come to the rescue to clean off the trapped honeybee until they are released and set free. I must admit, of all the questions asked and all the facts shared, this little nugget was one of the most impactful moments of the day. The community honeybees create makes for an environment where they help, assist and work together to ensure every member of the colony thrives. What would happen if we each worked together like these remarkable creatures?

You may have heard references in the God’s Word regarding honey which signifies it value and worth such as Proverbs 16:24, “ Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones”.

Our words that flow from our mouths should resemble that rich honey full of encouragement, love, wisdom and truth. Those are the words that will lift your neighbors stuck in the trenches of life and can be the words that sets them free from the hold of the enemy. The work that goes behind creating that sweet liquid gold is not simple, but a complex process woven together inside a hidden hive of humbleness, eagerness and ingenuity. If the bees did not support each other and create a system that works best for the colony then we would never be the recipient of honey and our entire food supply would be in jeopardy. I encourage you to take a look at your community this week – your home, those in your circle, those in your neighborhood and beyond. Do you see others working together for the greater good or do you see others working against each other for the sake of their own gain? Many reading this will assume it is naïve of me to believe that an entire community could operate under one accord, and you are right.

But if we each live our days striving to complete the tasks God has hand selected us to do then in due time our good works will begin to flow like that sweet honey through our mouths and actions. The day of the Lord is approaching – I can promise you will want to be that busy bee in the field working for the greater good and striving to do all you can to create a community of love.

“ And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:24-25.

Blessings, Kayla