“God’s love language is obedience” – Survivor, Riley Kehoe, of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. I Survived The Deadliest Tsunami In History | Boxing Day 2004 Survivor Riley Kehoe This past Sunday, I heard this quote, and it has been stuck in my head ever since.

Growing up, good dental hygiene wasn’t prioritized in my household, but I was blessed with a beautiful smile and strong teeth. Every time I visit the dentist, which I’ve stayed pretty consistent with over the years, I am always complimented on how nice my teeth are. I go to my cleanings and get the suggested work done, but it is in the daily maintenance—brushing twice a day, flossing every night—where I’ve struggled with creating a habit.

Over the years, the lack of care has begun to manifest outwardly. It started with eight cavities being filled in college. Then came a root canal, a crown, and another crown. Recently, I went to the dentist because one of my crowns had come out while flossing. They told me I now had two additional cavities—one underneath the crown (likely why it popped out) and another beside it.

This dentist suggested additional work. He recommended replacing my other crown and extracting my bottom wisdom teeth, not because the current work was inadequate or because my wisdom teeth were causing problems, but as preventative measures considering my dental hygiene habits. I was so surprised! I’d just had a cleaning in November with a different dentist who told me my teeth were in good shape! I switched because this one was closer, had a very impressive background, and much better reviews. When I told this to the hygienist they let me know some dentists are more conservative than others and my new one leaned towards caution.

You can see at the end of this post how the bill for all this work is enough to buy a used car. I chose to only have the one crown that needed immediate attention fixed. Replacing it alone was a couple thousand. The immediate realization was sobering: I only need this much work because I haven’t taken proper care of my teeth. It was a hard pill to swallow, knowing that God had given me something great, that I’ve had previous warnings to treat better, and I’m still ruining them through neglect. As I sat with this, the quote “God’s love language is obedience” kept replaying in my mind. I knew He wanted me to connect the inconsistent care of my teeth with disobedience to His command to treat my body like a temple. 

I started searching the Bible for verses about obedience, understanding that if I can learn to be obedient in caring for my body, I can save myself thousands of dollars in future medical and dental bills. My struggle has been with the “how.” But as I searched, God revealed to me that the situation I’m going through is what He’s using to teach me obedience.

Hebrews 5:8 says, “Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered.”

The dental work I had done was in a hard-to-reach spot in the upper back of my mouth. The experience was painful. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I cried. Then, last night, the temporary crown they put on came out, and the replacement doesn’t fit well. I can’t completely close my teeth together. Additionally, for the past two years I’ve been striving to be a good financial steward of our resources. Seeing that bill yesterday hurt—knowing our financial goals will suffer because of my willful negligence. It was completely avoidable but now thousands of dollars needed to be spent. Then there’s the emotional suffering of knowing this was my own fault. I can’t blame my bad habits on my upbringing anymore. I’m in my 30s now, and I can clearly see how every bit of dental work I’ve had and every piece of advice I’ve been given was also God telling me to be obedient. Guilt and shame that made me want to sit on the ground and put dust on my head, Job style. 

Does any of this compare to the suffering Jesus endured? Of course not even close. But I can see how God wants to use this experience to teach me obedience through suffering. I can’t go back and change what brought me to this point, but I can choose to be better and prevent it from happening again. 

This situation has been a painful warning but honestly, I’m slow to learn when everything is comfortable, so I know why I was sitting in that dentist chair yesterday. I know why it hurt. I know why today is uncomfortable. I know why I’ll only have liquids for a few days. And if things remain uncomfortable, I’ll know why. Because He’s teaching me obedience. 

Quick update: If you look at the bill Treatment Case below you’ll see the cost for two crowns as I mentioned earlier. Well, five days after writing this article, as I was flossing, the second crown popped right out of my mouth. I wanted to wait to address it but Jesus had something else in mind. By that point, all I could do was laugh and shed a tear or two at the situation. To see how we’ve adjusted our base budget for this $3700 unexpected expense you can head over to ‘Don’t panic: Zero-Sum Budgeting for Big Expenses’.[coming soon]