I’m sitting at the orthodontist.  Blogging.  I know…dream big, kids.

If you have a middle schooler, chances are that you may spend quite a bit of time in waiting rooms of the orthodontia flavor.

You may also spend quite a bit of time talking thru eye rolls, tick tock video etiquette, hydro dipping shoes and endless questions about WHY HE HAS TO HAVE A FLIP PHONE WHEN EVERYONE ELSE HAS AN IPHONE AND YOU ARE THE WORST.

I’m just guessing this.  Not speaking from personal experience.

As I sit here surrounded by HGTV and chap stick tubes, I’m thinking of myself at 12.

I had braces forever.
I wore my retainer forever.
Then I got a night guard for grinding my teeth in my 30s and broke it in a middle of the night during an unconscious stress session last year when we were foster parents.

Now, this year, with nothing to remind my teeth how to be, they have decided to move.  I’ve got a front gap peeking at me.  Oh. The horror of 1st world problems.  But. I’m being honest here.  I see the gap every time I smile.

My teeth have known what to do since I was 13.  But, the year I stopped reminding them how to be, they changed.  After just a year.

Oh, man, does this ever remind me of my life with God.

If I’m not spending time with him.  Talking, reading the Bible, singing, imagining with him…if I’m not doing those things, I start to change.  I forget who I am.  And whose I am.  I need to be reminded over and over and over. I need to surrender over and over and over.  I need to release control over and over and over.

Being a brace face is right where it’s at, I suppose.

God remind us.

Mold us straight.

into your image.

Into LOVE.

And don’t let us forget.