The dentist and more perspective

I got my teeth cleaned the other day. I know that makes my parents happy to hear that I am taking care of the pearly whites after all the money in braces and dental visits that they paid for all my years growing up. I used to think that one of the worst things in the world was going to the dentist. My orthodontist’s name growing up when I got braces was Dr. Fear for crying out loud! (I’m not even kidding about this) With my eye condition that I developed the past couple of years my perspective on “the worst thing” or pain really changed. I was sitting in the dentist’s office and thought to myself, I used to get upset stomachs when I would just look in the general direction of the dentist’s office growing up and now its really no big deal to go get a check up or get my teeth cleaned. I still don’t like the feel or sound of metal-pokey things being scraped on my teeth but in general I am not the nervous wreak that I used to be back in the day. I would say that I “grew up” with my thinking about how bad those encounters were in my life. As bad as I thought it was to go to the dentist growing up it is nothing to the crap I have went through with my eye these past couple of years. I can remember when my eye was really bad only getting about an hour and a half of sleep a night and actually watching the inflammation increase in my eye as I laid in bed with headaches and ice packs to try and help with the pain. I would get up from the couch and look in every mirror in the house at how red my eye was probably no less than forty times. I actually developed “dents” in the muscles in my thighs from leaning against the counter in my bathroom. The pictures I posted were from my compulsive obsessive nights of looking at my eye continuously and complaining about just how bad I had it. I think about what I have went through the past couple of years and know that there are others out there that have dealt with their own version of pain and duress. I guess what I am trying to say is that no matter how bad you think something is in life, to keep perspective on it and don’t get down thinking the worst about it. Some of you reading this don’t have a relationship with God to be able to lean on him. I would encourage you to give your stuff to him and see what happens instead of trying to deal with it on your own. I look back on my physical issues and know that I need to keep perspective and not look back but look forward. I believe that I will come out of this season with the same perspective I have about the dentist now; that all in all, it just wasn’t that bad. I am not saying that the pain is or was any less excruciating, but if I can learn what God has for me in the midst of all this then I can come out on the other side with a perspective that goes beyond me asking “why did this happen to me” and to “God, what are you trying to show my through this”.