The Dentist

A few days ago I had my 6 month appointment with the dentist and to be honest I truly dislike going to the dentist. (That's really besides the point.) Anyway, I came home from work and began my usual cleaning procedure which I'm sure many of you can attest to doing so yourself. I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth really well, making sure to follow all the rules about which way you brush and how long. From there I moved onto mouthwash, and then I brushed my teeth again, just in case I missed anything. After that I flossed my teeth (and to be honest, I rarely do that any other time of the year) and finished up with another quick brushing. I'm going to guess that it all must have worked b/c I walked out without a cavity this time.

As I was doing all of this though it really got me to thinking. I mean honestly I know the fact that I brushed my teeth really well on that day a hour before I went to the dentist was not what caused me to have a good visit, cavity free. Obviously it was the fact that I brushed my teeth daily and didn't eat bags of candy every day.  However it's funny to me that every time I have a dentist appointment I go through this ridiculous procedure.  I must really think that this last minute brushing has some effect on my results and while it's nice b/c the dentist won't smell my stinky breath when I go in, it's really just a last minute attempt to make myself seem half presentable. In some ways I think many Christians try to do this as well, me included at times.

We try and do a quick last ditch effort to make ourselves seem presentable to God. For instance we'll go to church once a month or a couple times a year and think that qualifies us as Christian's in a deep relationship with Christ. Now I'm not saying that whether or not you go to church is what makes you a Christian, but if you're just counting a few visits here and there without any reading on your own, or one on one time with God that's not really doing what God asks us to do. Trust me I know life can get busy and it can seem as though we don't have time but that's when we cut out the time spent doing useless things. Cut out that extra hour of tv and spend it reading the great and exciting book that's really better than any show that's on tv. God can see our entire lives, he knows what we have or will do. He's even better at picking out our flaws than a dentist is at picking out our cavities. Unlike the dentist who may miss one or two God's never going to miss one and he's easily going to see through that quick effort we do to polish ourselves up.  Plus with a God as awesome as the one we have why would we want to just polish up for him, why wouldn't we want to take care of ourselves daily, learning to grow and become closer with him. In reality wouldn't that make dentist visits a little more pleasant as well. If we actually met with our dentist more than twice a year and were able to develop a relationship with him so he would know us and we would know him I'm willing to be the visits would be a lot better. However that's really not the point of my blog at all so I'm going to move on.

Don't just spend a hour here and there trying to get to know our amazing God. We need to stop just trying to settle for mediocre in our relationship with him on our part and strive to get as close as humanly possible as we can to him. I know I struggle with this as well but I want to make a stand and truly start trying to grow closer.  Stop polishing and start diving in and growing with him b/c he's waiting for us. So let's go!