teef

I had an epiphany today as I was cleaning my teeth. For some reason I recalled a question our class was asked when I was 8 or 9. How would you answer this?

If you could only brush your teeth once, is it better to brush them last thing at night or first thing in the morning?

My instant response was: ‘first thing in the morning’ but the rest of the class voted for last thing at night. My reason was that your teeth get dirtier during the day so its good to clean them at the start to protect them, but the right answer was that you need to clean off the day’s gunk so it does not stay on your teeth overnight.

I have often wondered why I did not work things out that way. And this morning I realised that my thinking was that you usually wake up with ‘bed breath’ and it’s nice to brush them and get rid of it.

The real right answer to the question is that it is a poor question. You should not set up the two occasions in opposition to each other: both are needed.

We all need to clean our spiritual teeth regularly too – keep short accounts with God and one another. In fact I often use the moments when I am cleaning my teeth to remind me to check and see if I need to ask for forgiveness… It’s good if I remember to clean my teeth regularly!

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