i want white teeth.  
they will make me happier because i'll be prettier and look younger, right?
so, i save up my money and buy the most expensive crest white strips i can find.  
  
day 1.  i'm so excited.  i apply the crest white strips.  so much better.  i feel good about myself.
day 2.  i forget because i am running late for _____ (you fill in the blanks)
day 3.  i remember but i only have time to wear them for 10 minutes because i'm going to have coffee with a friend.
day 4.  i can't even find the box of white strips.
day 5.  i've lost my momentum.  it's too much trouble to put the white strips on. (even as i type that i'm stunned at this statement.)
days 6-47 (or so).  i cram the strips in a drawer in my bathroom. i forget all about them unless i open the drawer in which they lay, wasted.  and then, guilt.  
and even self loathing.
about white strips.  
i obviously have issues.

day 48 (or so).  i open my drawer and i pull them out.  and i take a picture of them and then i write about them.  (perhaps i'll apply them after i write this.)


there are so many scenarios in my life to which this situation applies.  
my physical self, i.e. eating well, drinking responsibly, exercising regularly, proper rest, but this also applies to my spiritual self.  


Philippians 2:12-13 (TNIV)
¹² Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.


the TNIV says 'work out your salvation, but that God's at work within me.'
'Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure.' 


i like this.  so back to the white strips.  
maybe the working out my salvation is much like putting on Crest white strips.  i'm not making my teeth whiter, i'm simply applying them to my teeth and the strips do the work.  


so today i'll offer myself, reverent and sensitive before God.  and i'll let Him do the work in me.  and altho i'm not really certain about how this all happens, i'll rest in the fact, the hope, the belief that it does.
white teeth or not.