I’m Not a Dentist

When my oldest child was in Kindergarten she started getting wiggly teeth. She knew this meant easy money and had visions of new Polly Pockets dancing in her head. I happen to LOVE snaggletooth kids and was hoping for a “garage door”…all four front teeth gone at once. This is the jackpot of snaggletooth love. The first two teeth almost jumped out of her mouth. No big deal (“NBD” now that she’s a teen). Tooth number three was a little stubborn and apparently was painful enough to leave her with the desire to grow old with her remaining baby teeth. 

When her right central incisor (thanks, google) or “front tooth” was loose she didn’t want us to go near it. We knew it needed to come out because we could see the “big tooth” breaking through her gums. I wasn’t about to pay to have a baby tooth pulled when it could practically do back flips with the touch of her tongue. I offered her a brand new poncho from Target if she would let me pull her tooth (#noshame). She was game. It would save me 100 bucks so it was a win/win. 

She came up with an idea. We would tie a long piece of dental floss around her tooth and hang the floss out of her mouth. When she was asleep she wanted Keller or myself to go in her room and pull on the floss to pull her tooth out. I was a little nervous about the idea…I worried about waking her up and it being painful, but I thought “great idea…she’s in it to win it!” #poncho

Night came. Floss in place. She was sound asleep. Keller made me do the “surgery” because he didn’t want to be known as the bad guy if something went wrong. “You’re a chicken! What could go wrong?!” I thought.  So instead of watching Saturday Night Live…um, I mean instead of doing my nightly devotional, I tip toed in her room. Heart racing and wondering if there really could be monsters under the bed. 

I chanted a few oms, thought of how I could spend the moolah I was saving and with sweaty palms I grabbed the floss. 1-2-3! I pulled. The tooth didn’t come out.  I cussed. Or prayed. I can’t remember. I was just thankful she didn’t wake up! I pumped myself up to try it again. This time I twisted the floss around my hand a couple of times to be sure I had a good grip. I took a couple of deep breaths and I yanked that sucker like I was in a serious game of tug of war. I will never forget it. Her head and shoulders flung up off her pillow like a dummy in a crash test commercial. The floss broke in two and she woke up screaming like a stuck pig! “AAAAHHHHHH!! Why did you yank so hard?! Ouch, Oooooowwwwww!” I was picturing her going back to kindergarten with a whiplash neck brace and telling her teachers that her mother jerked a knot in her head.  And…I would still have to buy the poncho to pay for my guilt and probably still have to take her to the dentist…and now therapy too.  That chomper must have had some bad to the bone roots. There was no “third times a charm.” I was once again banned from even looking at the tooth.

Her adult tooth ended up growing in – IN FRONT of her baby tooth. It was huge and bright white in comparison and it stuck out like a piece of Chiclets gum. Because it nearly needed its own room, we affectionately called the new tooth “Big Chester.” God bless the person who invented braces. Chester was reined in and the tooth fairy left a considerable bonus based on the amount of pain and guilt we all suffered because of little Chester’s major case of  resistance.

I can relate to this.  I am often resistant. Actually, I can be stubborn as a mule and hang on to what I want with everything in me.  Even though I know that God has always been faithful to me, trusting in His love and provision is still hard. I want to trust…I even say I trust.  I “give” it to God…then I take it back. It’s like forgetting you have the emergency break on in your car. You press the pedal to go…but the car won’t move.  Resistance.  

Recognizing my resistance and asking for God’s help is like crying “uncle” for me. Saying “I give…I can’t do this on my own”…and realizing that control is an illusion anyway. None of us actually has control over his or her future in the first place. True freedom comes when give our control over to the power and truth of God’s unconditional, everlasting and abundant love. 

When my kids were little and they had a splinter in their finger they would scream when I brought out the tweezers. They resisted.  I remember having to hold them down to pull that speck out of their skin. They fought so hard…but when it was out, it was instant relief. We don’t often get instant relief but Philippians 1:6 says “I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns.” That leaves us wondering why we are ever resistant in the first place.

Think of God’s faithfulness to you in the past. Acknowledge your fear. Hang out in the reality of God’s perfect love and plan for you. Nowhere does He promise it will be easy or pain free. Dare to trust in God’s love and provision for you. His love is perfect…and “Perfect love takes away fear.” I John 4:18.

By the way, my youngest had a “garage door.”:)