Pain leads to Gain

The morning began with a visit to the dentist. I am really not sure why this dentist is so giving of his time and resources to me and doing all of this work with no charge. It humbles me every day. I walk in to the office and my heart is full of gratitude. I can barely speak while I am there, knowing the magnitude of what is being done for me...why me...I ask that each time I am there. The eating disorder...the choices I made during the duration wore away at my teeth. They had to pull 4...and now they are providing me with a partial so that my mouth is full of teeth again. My mouth...is a constant reminder of what I did to my body...the pain I use to feel in my mouth reminded me each day of everything...not just the eating disorder behaviors but of all the things that lead up to it....and now as my mouth becomes fixed...the constant reminder is fading away...there is no more pain...just empty spaces for now.

As I sat in the chair today and as they filed some of my teeth down to fit the partial and got numerous impressions...there were moments of pain...and I felt God remind me that some of the greatest lessons...some of the greatest gains have some pain. Without the pain we wouldn't get the gift that is at the end. The pain of getting my teeth fixed will provide me with a new smile...one that I won't be embarrassed to show. The pain is temporary...the gain is long standing. God reminded me that the pains that I have felt were temporary but the gain will be eternal. Today I am thankful for the pains...the hurts...the fear. Today I am grateful that God entrusted me with some of the pains so that I could rise above and do the things He planned for me.

And later today I pulled out our swimming pool from the side of the house. I didn't clean it up very good at the end of last summer or store it very well...so it was quite dirty. It took a long time to clean it up and today it was 89 degrees out. It was hot. Jack kept asking when I was going to be done. I told him it took time to make sure that it was clean and prepared for the water. It took time because I didn't store it correctly and I wanted it to be clean and ready for the water. There was a consequence for not taking care of it. But the time put in to cleaning the pool made it ready for the water after 2 long scrubbing hours! When we don't take care of what God has given us we have to give ourselves time to get back to where we need to be...clean and ready to be used.

I am humbled that God used today's happenings to teach me lessons and remind me of where I am now and where I am going. He showed me that the pain has great results...that it takes time to get clean and ready...prepared...and that God is the giver of gifts and love.

Financial aid went through and I start classes on August 23rd! A student again....

Blessings...
Tomorrow will be hot here again...in the 90's.
Heading to the beach with my dad.
Teresa