Today is Sweetest Day!!! Through the years, I’ve been told by grumpy guys – never a woman – that this is nothing more than a manufactured holiday and it is just a way for Hallmark to sell more cards. These huffy husbands will say that they don’t need a Hallmark holiday to tell them to be sweet to their wives. That’s wonderful – if it were true! But I’m obligated to play myth buster on this one.
- Most holidays are manufactured ones. You can trace a time when they began, including Christmas (approximately 336 AD) and Thanksgiving (officially proclaimed on October 3, 1863). Sweetest Day began on October 14, 1916, Next year marks 100 years that this celebration has existed.
- This is NOT a Hallmark holiday. In fact, the name Hallmark didn’t show up until 1928.
- The National Confectioners Association founded this holiday in 1916. It was originally known as Candy Day.
- Originally, it wasn’t intended to be romantic. Candy Day (Sweetest Day) was
intended to get people into the confectioner’s shops, sample some of the great sweet treats for themselves, then BUY a bunch of it to give to family and friends, reminding them that your life is sweeter with them in it. - If we were to poll the wives, would they be able to say that they have been reminded recently that they are the sweetest asset to the family? Seems that any opportunity to shower our sweethearts with sweetness is a winning situation!
As I look through the Scripture, I see a lot of responsibility placed on the shoulders of the men. That’s not to say that there isn’t great responsibility on the women. But the men seem to have some specific instructions given just to them. It all started in the Garden.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
As we enter the New Testament, the responsibility is spelled out very clearly. Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Colossians 3:19 tells us something similar with an added element. “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” And if that doesn’t provide you with enough to think about, add the instructions of 1 Peter 3:7. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
As a final duty, let’s remind ourselves of this instruction found in 1 Timothy 5:8. And let’s enjoy our sweetest on Sweetest Day. “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”
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