The Lying Toothbrush

THE LYING TOOTHBRUSH

It has been my habit to faithfully care for my teeth and gums for many years. I brush and floss and use my water pick and all has been well . Well recently my life got turned upside down, my habits became disrupted. Many times I didn’t have my water pick with me and just had to brush and sometimes I had floss. All seemed fine until it came time for my regular dental check up. As the hygienist began to poke my gums, she started saying numbers like three and four and bleeding - hmm- that didn’t sound good. The next thing I knew she telling me about special work that needed done and the hundreds of dollars it would cost - eeek! Well my first thought was “Well lady if you wouldn’t poke me with that sharp thing then my gums wouldn’t be bleeding”. I then reprimanded myself - no use blaming her - it was obvious who was to blame “MY LYING TOOTHBRUSH”.
You see every time I brushed my teeth, my mouth felt clean, and it looked clean and I was under the impression that it WAS clean. The truth was that the toothbrush only was getting the surface. Small bits of bacteria were hiding in there and they started to grow and before you knew it- there I was with a big problem.
I asked the girl to make an appointment for me for three months and I would take charge and get back to my routine and I am happy to report at the end of that three months - I passed with flying colors and didn’t have to spend all those hundreds of dollars - I am sure Arliss was very happy as well.
It started me thinking about our lives though. Recently the preacher was talking to us about the difference of being throughly cleansed and thoroughly cleansed. When we accept Christ as our Savior - we are throughly cleansed - which means through and through. Thoroughly means surface clean like when you clean the outside of your car.
Well I was thoroughly cleaning my teeth when they needed to be throughly cleaned.
We go about our every day lives and we go to church and do the right things on the surface but underneath there is sin that we aren’t willing to cleanse away. That little thing doesn’t seem to be a problem but ever so gradually it grows and grows until one day our walk with the Lord is completely messed up and we wonder - what happened? Now remember I am not talking about salvation as we cannot lose it once we have it. We however can lose our fellowship with God. Unconfessed sin harms our walk with God and until we get everything right - our walk cannot get back to what we want.
Now when you are brushing your teeth maybe you should use that time to ask the Lord if maybe there might be some bacteria growing in your life that needs to be purged.
I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness -
There is so much joy when we are right with God - get in there and GET THROUGHLY CLEANSED!