It Can Come Back to Bite You

My heart was pounding in my chest as I looked inside Michael’s mouth.  I was trying to apply numbing medicine to his molars as he said they ached.  My big 13-year-old football player was a tough guy, never-complaining, but here he was near tears.  Because he rarely groused, when he had said he was really hurting, I stopped on the way home from work to get him something.  Money was extremely tight as a newly singled mom and every penny counted, but I could see he was in pain, so off to the drugstore I went.

I thought I could dab a little remedy on and he would be fine, but now I was sickened at what I saw: two of his back teeth were oozing brown and literally falling apart.  No wonder this kid asked for relief – I’d be screaming for morphine!  His new orthodontist had mentioned Michael needed some teeth pulled for braces, but I had put it off - don't they all say that?  It would have to wait until I saved the funds.  I was working full-time Mon-Fri, slaving at McDonald’s on the weekends and had a regular piano gig on the side, just to make ends meet.  I hadn’t had time to figure out when I could get him in, just for cosmetics.  Seeing his true condition, I was stricken with guilt.

“Michael, we’re going to get you into the oral surgeon, tomorrow.”  I promised.

At the doctor’s office, they said the infection in Michael’s decaying teeth had to clear up before they could come out.   When I asked what had happened to them, it was explained his teeth had come in with no enamel at all; I was shocked.  The doctor asked, “Was he on antibiotics a lot as a small child?”

I was stunned he knew that.  “Constantly,” I said.  “We kept him on a low-dose antibiotic every day for about three years.”

The doctor said because of the medicine, several of his adult teeth had formed with no enamel and we may have more teeth to pull later on.  Michael turned with an anger and distain I hadn’t seen before and painfully accused, “Why did you do that to me?”

The doctor looked away.  I flushed and stammered, “It was the best choice we could make at the time, Bud.”

“Well, it was the wrong one!” he spat.

I knew Michael had forgotten his early years.  But I remembered.  Sadly, I could see myself alone with him in a hospital room so many times I couldn’t count while he battled pneumonia or bronchitis or RSV.  He didn’t recall the drug schedule I had to keep on the refrigerator so I would know what to administer, when.  He couldn’t recollect the therapists and visiting nurses and social workers and parade of specialists I arranged for him see.  He didn’t take into account how many nights I had to race him to emergency rooms, hoping and praying all the way the doctors would be able to get him to breathe, that God would touch my little boy and let him rally back one more time.

“Well, honey, it’s what we had to do.  It was a choice we had to make to keep you breathing.  I’m sorry.”

It is so difficult to make the right decisions!  Whether it’s life-threatening or mundane, about whom to date, which bill to pay, who to vote for or where to go to church – it’s not easy to make that choice.  You pray, decide, hope for the best, then wish with all your might that the consequences of what you’ve done won’t come back to bite you.

I wish for you this day God’s peace.  Did you make the right choice?  That’s between you and Jesus; nobody else gets to decide.  Did you make your decision hastily?  Did you put great thought into it?  Maybe you didn’t even care and now it is haunting you.  Christ will forgive and can even give you the strength to admit it was wrong and help you learn from it.  Or reassure you it was right even if it was the hardest thing you've ever done.

Be at peace.  He knows your heart.  If you were correct or made the biggest mistake, just go to Him and say, “Here’s what I did; it’s yours, now. Please take it from me.” And I promise: He can make something beautiful of your life.

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Look Up if You Like
Ps 103:8-12; Prov 3:5-6, 21-22; Prov 4:4-10; Prov 16:2-4, 9; Isa 30:18-21; Rom 6:23; Rom 8:28; 1 Jn 1:5-10
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Pondering Points

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Psalm 103: 8-12
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Proverbs 3:5-6, 21-22
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck.
Proverbs 4:4-10
“Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.  Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.  Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor.”
Proverbs 16:2-4, 9
All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the Lord. Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.  The Lord works out everything for his own ends—even the wicked for a day of disaster.  In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.
Isaiah 30:18-21
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!  O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.  Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 1:5-10 (emphasis mine)
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
     If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.