I have thought about braces a lot recently. For starters, I recently finished paying for the first set that I will pay for, and secondly that set completed it’s work yesterday. Yeah! But actually the work is not complete, now’s there’s that part called the retainer – that’s helps keep it all in place.
Think about braces for a moment. All that metal strapped to a set of crooked and misplaced teeth. Then over time, an adjustment here and a little pressure here, and some rubber bands to pull on the other side. Each month small adjustments. Behind all those metal smiles there is a transformation taking place, until finally one day the braces come off and viola! There are teeth that are straight and correct aligned and ready to once again eat hard candy and popcorn!
Don’t you wish there were braces for your spiritual life. Just strap on some metal, allow some one else to make adjustments and then boom, one day – everything is in it’s correct place and we are ‘perfect’. Unfortunately, it’s not that way. However, we can learn from all the minor adjustments and the way that all the small changes going on behind the braces create huge changes when it’s all said and done.
That reminds me of the verse behind this whole Daily Buffet thing. A verse that I come back to often
24 Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain.
25 And every man that striveth in the games exerciseth self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, as not uncertainly; so fight I, as not beating the air:
27but I buffet my body, and bring it into bondage: lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 American Standard Version (ASV)
That version may be funny to read, but I love that word buffet. Each day we continue to train, we continue work our selves, making small corrections, and minor adjustments – all along knowing that we have a prize out in front!
Keep going!
And don’t forget to brush!