dental truth

This morning I had to go for my annual dental exam. This is not a voluntary ritual. It's one of those things that married guys do...because they're married. Without a wife I would probably sit among a pile of empty pizza boxes and only visit the dentist on occasions of extreme pain. Probably the kind of pain that only pliers could remedy.

Not that my dentist isn't a great guy. He's a good friend and an excellent doctor. But c'mon, he's a dentist! Getting your teeth poked and prodded ranks right there at the bottom of the list of "things I look forward to".

But it made me think of how often we lie to people in subtle ways. Have you ever noticed that when the dentist asks you, "How often do you floss?" We tend to say, "Oh...about once a week?" When in reality, you've had the same roll of floss in the medicine cabinet for the last 7 years.

Why do we do that? Why do we have the tendency to say what other people want to hear? Why do we worry so much about what others think of us? Why are we afraid of being scolded by a dental hygenist? What's she going to do...floss you till it hurts? (uh...YEAH, that's exactly what she'll do!)

And yet, we so often have this tendency to bend the truth, so as to protect our image. This is not good because God calls us to a life of complete honesty.

Fortunately on this trip to the dentist, nobody asked how often I floss...so I wasn't even tempted to lie!