When I got married there was one thing my wife made sure we did every six months, whether I wanted to or not and whether we could afford it. We were going to the dentist. Interestingly, she doesn’t like going to the dentist, and I don’t mind going except for the times in our life when we didn’t have dental insurance.
Most of those visits were uneventful. But there has been an occasion when we needed further work than just a cleaning if you know what I mean. Well, my last visit was one of those visits. The dentist returned and looked at the X-rays and told me I had a cavity. I hadn’t had one in a long time and have been very diligent about brushing and flossing and rinsing for many years.
Regardless of my efforts, I have a cavity that I need to have filled. I think there are some lessons to be learned from my dental visits. Our teeth need to be tended to. Our faith needs to be attended to as well. We should regularly check our faith for decay and problems. We should daily exercise our faith and make sure we are tending to even the most difficult areas and times to have faith. And sometimes, we need a good rinsing of our faith with the Gospel.
James 1:3 says that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. 2 Corinthians 5:7 says that we walk by faith, not by sight. In Mark 10:52, Jesus said, “Go your way, your faith has made you well.” When we place our faith in God, there are so many things available to us. Just like eating is easier with our teeth. Just like speaking is easier with teeth. Just like smiling is easier with teeth. Living in this crazy world is a lot easier when we have faith.
My wife had some dental work done recently and her appointment was for 2:30. It took other people commenting for me to realize that 2:30 is when all dental work should be done. (get it? Tooth hurty?) I tried to think of a catchy time of day for us to remember our faith. I couldn’t come up with one. And maybe we shouldn’t because faith is something that should be at the front of our minds all the time.