Sweetest Day is fast approaching – a day created primarily by confectioners to get men to buy their wives or girlfriends candy.  To some, Sweetest Day is a wonderful opportunity to show that special someone just how special they are.  To others, Sweetest Day is a manufactured holiday designed to help a few businesses fill their coffers during an otherwise slow period of the year.  In my mind, there’s an element of both sentiments that can be found in it.  If I had a dictionary, my definition of Sweetest Day would read something like this:

Sweetest Day – An observance on the third Saturday of October which encourages us to treat the people we love in the way God instructs us to treat them every day.

 
This is a classic example of how man can come up with a brilliant idea that pales in comparison to the plan God set into place centuries ago.  Why do we need a specific day set aside to demonstrate the love we have for the special people in our lives?  Shouldn’t we be living this as our reality every day? Why don’t we show that love more often?  Why do we allow those who love us to get away with it? Reducing ourselves to loving one another only when the calendar says so, or at those times when it is easy, convenient, or beneficial is like telling somebody that an artificial sweetener tastes just as good and is better for you as real sugar. 

 
You can spin it all you want but you know that the manmade stuff simply isn’t as good as what God provided for us from the very beginning.  And this isn’t just in terms of taste.  The top artificial sweeteners all have side effects and at least one has been reported to have infiltrated our water supply as a whole because waste water treatment facilities are unable to break it down.  So if we continue our analogy, how then can we possibly think that a partial relationship or a worldly substitute for what God has provided is good for us? 
In Ephesians 5:25 Paul makes it very clear that we are to follow God’s model within our relationships when he says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”  So let me ask you:  Are one or two or even half a dozen expressions of love and gratitude per year enough?  If Christ were to love us just as we tend to love one another, we’d find Him expressing tremendous love for us on Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, but by Ascension Day He’d be out the door getting a break from “the old ball and chain.”  How thankful we are that this is not true, and how much more fortunate we are to have a proper model to show us how we should love each and every day.  Bring her flowers on a random Tuesday.  Make dinner just to give her a break.  Hold open every door.  Help her put on her coat.  Rub her neck, her back, even her feet.  Write her notes, love letters, poems and songs.  Go see the movies and shows that she likes.  But above all, be the strong man of God she needs – a man who is worthy of the titles of husband, father, and spiritual head of the household.

 
This point is made clear to those people who are in relationships, but what about those of us who are not.  What is our role and responsibility in making every day the sweetest it can be?  Frankly, it is one and the same.  Every day of my life I am showing love to my future wife through my diligent, obedient growth in my faith in God.  As I wait for God’s timing to bring me and her to that place where we are able to fully enjoy the blessings He has in store for us, I work every day to prepare myself for her.  I build my faith so that I will love her fully, patiently, and with the depth necessary for a daughter of the Most High God.  I prepare my house, building up stability in every area of my personal finances, career, and future.  I hold myself accountable to build and strenghten my character so that I am living each day with integrity and godliness.  I will continue to demonstrate these traits until such time as God gives us the word to come together, to share in a love that only He could provide, and to shower her with an abundance of every good gift God has given me every day for the rest of my life.  I don’t do this to sound pathetic or hopelessly romantic.  I do it because God has directed me to do so.  He is true to His word.  He is perfect in His timing.  And because the love He has for me is far greater than any worldly expression of emotion I could know, I desire nothing less than that same level of complete love in my life…
…with absolutely nothing artificial added, required, or desired!