SWEET TALK
By Steve Bietz
Burke County
There is a reason sweethearts don’t give each other boxes of radicchio for Valentine’s Day, and it’s related to the reason we don’t refer to lovers as bitter hearts. Humans have a soft spot for things that taste sweet. In our mouths, we don’t just have a sweet tooth but usually, we must admit that all 32 teeth like things sweet. In fact, the number one item we purchase at grocery stores is soft drinks. Dentists are constantly warning us that there is nothing worse to satisfy our sweet tooth than soft drinks. Nothing causes tooth decay like consuming soft drinks.
As we zero in on another Valentine’s Day, there will be things we give to our sweethearts that taste so deliciously sweet. And we will share sweet talk with our sweethearts with a Hallmark Card that may sound a little bit like “roses are red, violets are blue.”
Did you know that the Bible is just full of sweet talk? Many times we see the words sweet, sweetly, or sweetness. I personally have a sweet tooth for the sweet talk that the psalmist has written down for us to consider. For example, when David is describing his own sweet tooth for God’s law, he writes in Psalm 19:10, “More to be desired are they than fine gold, yea more than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” The psalmist shares similar sweet talk in Psalm 119:103 when he writes: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey in my mouth!” And when the psalmist considers his time spent with God, he would share sweet talk in Psalm 104:34 and write: “May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.”
Louisa Stead and her husband along with their daughter Lilly sat on an embankment on Long Island Sound, enjoying a picnic lunch. Suddenly they were interrupted by the sights and sounds of a young boy drowning in the water. Louisa’s husband jumped in after him, but neither the boy nor Lousia’s husband attempting to rescue him survived. Walking away from the scene was now a grieving widow and single parent. We would call those circumstances many things but I suspect we would not call them sweet. Yet later that day, Louisa would take pen and paper and write these words:
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to take Him at His word.
Just to rest upon His promise,
Just to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”
As we continue to look at this new year known as 2022, I see many writers describing the circumstances of our country and the world. Yet no one is describing this planet as sweet, no one is sharing sweet talk about our economy, our schools, or the pandemic. Yet as Christians, I hope we are so connected with our Lord that we each can know that delicious taste we can enjoy as we too, like the psalmist, can claim our meditation time that we are sharing with our God, is such a blessed sweet talk. No, we don’t sugar coat our trials or problems, but isn’t it sweet to trust in Jesus and to rest on the delicious sweet talk we find in God’s Word.
____________________________________________
Steve Bietz is the pastor at Morganton Seventh Day Adventist Church. You can read more good Christian news from Pastor Steve Bietz HERE.
____________________________________________
Blue Ridge Christian News covers Burke County, McDowell County, Mitchell County, Yancey County, Madison County, in North Carolina, and Christian news from around the country.
