True Confession: I don’t have the best dental hygiene.  I have great intentions, I buy the floss, the mouthwash, sonic toothbrushes, whitening/tartar control/fresh breath/clean your whole mouth toothpaste.  Yet too many nights I fall asleep without doing any of it.

One time I was close to sleep in bed and I mentioned to Jeff that I forgot to brush my teeth but I was too tired to get up.  He got up, brought me my toothbrush with toothpaste on it and a cup of water so I could brush in bed.  How awesome is my husband?  I suppose my dental hygiene or lack of affects him as well…

Anyway, this morning was my 6 month dental cleaning.  As I sat in the chair watching Live with Kelly and Michael (by the way, how cute is Kelly Rippa’s new haircut!), my i went to work on my teeth.  She scraped and flossed and polished and got 6 months worth of build up off of them.  For the rest of the day, I kept feeling how clean they were with my tongue.  And if I know me, tonight I’ll do an awesome job cleaning my teeth before bed … and maybe even keep it up for a few days before I fall back into bad habits.

So this got me to thinking about how clean and great my teeth would feel if I actually tended to them the way I should.  Brushing and flossing every morning and night, and maybe even after lunch too.  It would prevent a lot of problems, they would look better, I’d have better breath, and probably wouldn’t get sick as often.

And as I was thinking on this, a Bible verse popped into my mind.

 Morning, noon, and night I plead aloud in my distress, and the LORD hears my voice. (Psalm 55:17)

“Morning, noon, and night” sounds like when I should also be brushing my teeth!  God wants us to go to him morning, noon, and night.  I take that as God wants us to go to him all the time.  That sounds to me like an ongoing, ever-present relationship.  

God desires for me to take action and seek him out all day, every day.  Instead, too often, I am too tired, or I forget, and I don’t pray or read the Bible or meditate on him and his word. I have the best intentions, I buy a great Bible and devotional, I download cool apps, I have the newest, greatest worship music.  But they go untouched.  And then Sunday comes, and I expect the pastor to fill me up with God and cleanse me from the buildup of the world that came as a result of my neglect of God all week long … just like I expect the hygienist to clean up my teeth after 6 months of neglect.

The problem with that is I might leave church feeling great, but soon the world presses in and the decay in my heart continues.  Sunday mornings is not enough for God to truly capture my heart and transform me into the woman he desires me to be.  It is not enough to empower me to walk through my days with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  I need God, morning, noon, and night.  I need God the father, Jesus the son and salvation, and the Holy Spirit my teacher and comforter all day, every day.

So, God, forgive me for too many days of neglect (of both you and my teeth!).  Give me the desire, the discipline, the dedication, and the delight to seek you out morning, noon, and night. Oh, and the discipline to take care of my teeth that you created would be good too!

Pressing on together,

♥Becki