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Sweet - Nice, but sometimes not enough when referring to others.
Sweet
We have much experience with sweet foods, including those that are mostly sugar, such as fudge, and mildly sweet vegetables, like corn. We also refer to people as being sweet in some of what they say and do. Then too, we might speak of pets and other animals as having a sweet disposition, and we designate the results of some actions or consequences of actions as sweet. However, rarely would we say that, in essence, God is sweet.
We use “sweet” as a kind of sliding scale adjective, much as we do with font size on our electronic devices. Each of us decides a degree of sweetness to assign according to our taste, both literally, as with whatever we eat or drink, and metaphorically, with anything else we choose to call sweet. The term lacks a quality that we intuitively deem appropriate not only when identifying who God is, but also in describing the fulness of significant people in our lives. We want to express our sense of greatness, which reveals some of our values and beliefs as well as describing those for whom “sweet” would only be one quality among many.
When we think of a specific consoling experience in prayer or a kindness received from a friend, we might call it sweet, referring primarily to the effects upon us of their behavior. But, when we turn our attention directly to God or to anyone with whom we have a significant relationship, adjectives are insufficient before the mystery of their goodness. Even if we talk and sing about “sweet love” as an idea, we move beyond just our thoughts when it comes to our stance before a person when our hearts are involved. Each, especially God, is to us, a unique “you,” for whom words are often inadequate for expressing who they are to us. “Sweet” is not enough.
However, we use words as a common means of communication with God and others, hoping to make our inner truth understood and not trusting fully any other way of conveying whatever is in our hearts. We use the vocabulary we have, believing that whatever we say is only one part of the exchange, the rest being non-verbal yet entirely real. So, there is no rule about what we will say other than our own sense of how our words will be perceived by those with whom we share them. Words spoken in love are usually understood and accepted as sincerely intended.
There are also times, perhaps more frequently with God than anyone else, when “deep speaks unto deep” (Ps 42.7). We are at those times in the presence of someone we love who loves us, and we know in our whole being that we are really in communication and that words would be intrusive. Afterwards, we might say, “Sweet!”
Last Updated 2/7/2026