Flossing

Several months ago I went to the dentist for the first time in, well, in a long, long time. Let's just leave it at that, shall we? Even with an aunt and a dearest friend who are both dental hygienists, I still managed to avoid that dental visit! But, earlier this year I finally went.

After the visit, I went through all of the thoughts of the spiritual applications of the visit. If I keep up with my spiritual life, I have much less painful cleaning up to do. If I slack, there's a lot of yucky build-up.

But, lately I've had a new thought about my dental health.

You see, I've been trying to be diligent this time around. For the first time in my life I'm flossing regularly. I've flossed before, but it was very hit and miss. Now I'm doing it daily - well, usually. I must confess that there have been a couple of stretches when I've missed three or four days.

It's actually those times when I've missed a few days that brought about this blog thought. You see, I've noticed something about my teeth. My top teeth stay pretty clean and clear. Maybe they have better spacing. Maybe I brush them better. Or maybe they just don't get quite the bombardment that my bottom teeth do. I don't know. What I do know is that my bottom teeth require much more flossing attention.

Because of this reality, I sometimes have to battle with a temptation...
I don't have to floss the top teeth today. I can just floss the bottom teeth, and get back to the top ones in a few days. They'll be just fine for a while, as long as I'm focusing on my trouble spots!

I have those areas in my spiritual life, too. There are some things that, for whatever reason, I think are in decent day-to-day shape and I don't need to pay them as much attention. After all, there are other areas of my life that need constant work and care, right? Why should I waste my time with the things that are stable?

I've got to go ahead and floss those teeth - all of them. I can't neglect them. They are just as prone to attack as my bottom teeth. It's the same in my spiritual life. If I grow slack in the care of any area, I am opening myself up to spiritual disease. So, diligent I will be!