Reshaping

My daughter got her first set of braces today. They're actually just partials designed to widen the top of her mouth in order to make more room for her permanent teeth to come in. As loud as she is, they say she needs a bigger mouth...

I was the same way as a child. Too many teeth and not enough room. I'll never forget the day I had to get that horrid contraption in the top of my mouth at age 13. Back then, they put a W-shaped wire in the roof of my mouth that pushed out with all it's strength from the get go. My mouth was so sore I lost 15 lbs in about 3 weeks. It was quite painful.

Lauren will have a much easier time of it. The bar in her mouth is to be tightened twice a day over the next 10 days in order to slowly reach the desired size. It will still be painful, but not so bad as the whole dose at once. Then they will leave it in for 6 months to make sure it doesn't return to the former shape.

When I was sitting there listening to the hygienist describe how we are to turn it each time, I started thinking how grateful I was that God uses this method on me. Let me explain...

Before I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ I was messed up. There was just not enough room in my sinful flesh for the person God created me from antiquity to be. I was crooked and out of shape.

Then Jesus came into my life.
(That gives the WWJD acronym a whole new meaning to me!)

What if He had expected me to follow all the "rules" right away? What if He had put the pressure and demand of living a pure and holy life on me immediately? All I can say is that I would have lost a lot more than weight! But because He loves me so much and knows what is best, He is changing me day by day. 


Therefore we do not give up; even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 
2 Corinthians 4:16


Day by day He is reshaping me to be holy and beautiful for eternity, and has given the Holy Spirit to guide me in all truth. My responsibility is to make sure I don't just let Him sit there- Waiting for me to allow Him to make room in my life for His blessing and glory. I must tighten it day by day by the reading of the Word, and the bending of self and knees to Him in prayer. I must allow Him to do His work:


...assuming you heard Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus: you took off your former way of life, the old man that is corrupted by deceitful desires; you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds; you put on the new man, the one created according to God's [likeness] in righteousness and purity of the truth. 
Ephesians 4:21-24

And you want to know the best part?
There is no monthly payment plan: Jesus paid it all in full at the cross.