And so on to this post...
Christmas Eve morning I woke up at 3am with a throbbing in my mouth. I knew the feeling and I was not excited that it was back! I had brushed my teeth (like I do every day!) in the last couple of days and had noticed I had a sore on my top outside gum and just assumed it was an ulcer and it would run its course. But waking up that morning I realized I had other cold sores in my mouth and the one had decided to head to the roots of my teeth again. Now if you were with me back in June you know this was extremely painful and so not fun. So I did what any normal person would do knowing that this could get tons worse... I panicked! I called my dentist, I called all the doctors I knew, I texted my friend who connected me with the person who helped me last time... you see, I needed the Miracle Mouthwash. This is not a name I made up for this stuff, it is exactly what is on the bottle! It is what I got last time and it worked wonders to help me through the pain and I think to kill the ulcers in my mouth. And I was also ready to attack this by brushing with Mentadent and using mouth wash, not just after I ate, but OFTEN!
I was reminded of a conversation I had with a group of girls I was in a study with a couple of years ago about brushing our teeth. Each day we brush our teeth, most people twice a day, others many more. But we brush our teeth for a bunch of reasons... so we have good breath, to remove the nasty taste of whatever we just ate that was good but left a lingering, because our mothers told us to, and of course to prevent cavities and decay. Because once the cavity is there, the brushing doesn't matter any more for that spot, you have to DEAL WITH IT! So the brushing is preventative in a lot of ways. We want to take care of our teeth. We need our teeth. We like to eat! And so we do what we can to preserve them so they can do what they were intended to do.
Then we talked about how this is so much like why we need to be in God's Word. God's Word protects us, it changes us, it moves us, it encourages, it gives us what we need to do what we were intended to do. But we have to spend time with it, we have to do it often, or things will creep in and distract us and decay what was there. And my little scare with the ulcers sent me straight to the regimen of taking extra care of my mouth, of treating what was there so that they didn't spread and get worse. And it was a reminder of God's Word. When these hard things came into my life this past year and when I find myself struggling with old sin patterns or fighting lies of insecurity, what do I do? Do I resign myself to them and just give up and believe I have to live there? Or do I fight, do I keep putting God's truth in, do I keep talking to friends, do I even "up the game" of what I was doing before because the enemy is running a little hotter right now? Do I know what works? Do I "make all the calls" I need to fight and stay in it? I really do want to. And I want to be sure that I have the regimen in place before the "ulcers attack."
And my "regimen" in God's Word has been in place for a while, before this chunk of circumstances hit. God had moved me to spend more consistent time with Him, and to do it in the morning (this in and of itself was truly an act of Him as I am NOT a morning person.) I had also been challenged to start memorizing scripture (again a super natural act as I am not a good memorizer.) And I had to keep running to these things, this regimen that was put in place to sustain me in the hard. And I have to keep running there. And now, that it seems the clouds are starting to part a little, I have to keep running to His Word. I have to study it, know it, believe it, and obey it. I have to keep surrounding myself with truth, because there will be more yuck and I know this is how you make it through. It really is a miracle mouthwash... it doesn't make the hard not come... but it sure allows for peace and trust to mark the times of hard.
And when the hard comes, it makes it much harder to start spending consistent time, to start trusting in what His word says. It is never too late to start, but it sure helps if the "habit" is already in place.
And so... I really do pray that this year I will be even more consistent at spending time with the Lord... journaling, praying, reading His word, memorizing His word, listening and obeying... as consistent as brushing my teeth!
And this morning... Blake did a great job of talking about the importance of God's Word. Check it out here...
(It's a small miracle any of y'all follow what I say, I am a little random :) And apparently like to make up words.. .memorizer, journaling, and texted!)
