The Parable of Braces

When I was about 13 years old, I had the most crooked teeth. I had too small of a jaw and too large of teeth and it caused major crowding. I had the worst type of crooked teeth. I had what is called a cross-bite which means that some of my bottom teeth overlapped my top teeth. I had such crooked teeth, I felt like I had teeth coming out of my ears! It was NOT a pretty site to see. 

My gracious parents were kind enough to take me to an orthodontist to get braces. Long story short, it took 2 and a half years to take my crooked teeth and make them straight and beautiful! I remember the day I got my braces off. The orthodontist placed a retainer, which is kind of like a metal rod, behind my bottom teeth to keep them straight. They also gave me a set of plastic retainers and counseled me to wear them every night in order to keep my teeth from getting crooked again. 

I remember coming out of the orthodontist so excited for my straight teeth. I was beaming on the inside. I couldn't stop smiling! I felt beautiful with my perfectly straight pearly whites! And I was determined to keep them that way! 

For the first couple of weeks after my braces came off, I was determined to wear my retainer every night. Just like I was counseled to do. But as time passed, I began to get lazy and failed to consistently wear my retainer at night. I  reasoned with myself that they put in a permanent retainer at the bottom and if my bottom teeth will stay straight, I'm sure that will keep my top teeth straight as well Then finally, I stopped wearing my retainer all together. 

At first, I saw no changes to my smile.  But one day, while I was eating, I felt and heard a pop on my bottom teeth. I rushed to the mirror to take a look. Everything looked fine except I felt that the glue keeping one of my teeth secured onto the metal rod had broken off. 

My initial thought was that I need to go back to the orthodontist so they can glue it back. But my lazy self kicked in with another rationalization. Well if the other teeth next to this one is still glued onto the rod, it shouldn't be able to shift to much, if at all. So, I left it be. 

Fast forward 15 years later to earlier this year. I was looking through some of my family pictures and noticed a trend. I was not smiling with my teeth. Then I said to myself, well because my teeth aren't that straight anymore. They're still, for the most part aligned BUT through years of the daily pressures from eating with no retainer to bring them back into alignment, some of my teeth have definitely shifted out of alignment. 

This bugged me. I remembered the feeling of smiling with my teeth and taking pride in them. I wanted to beam again! 

So I took myself to an orthodontist for a consultation. Only this time, thanks to modern day technology, I knew I wanted to get clear aligners instead of getting the traditional wire braces. During the consultation, they discussed how clear aligners work and what I would personally need to commit to doing in order to actually make them effective in realigning my teeth. 

They said that I would receive several sets of aligners, 18 to be exact, for my specific case. each set was designed to move only a couple of specific teeth, incrementally. They mentioned that it would take an estimated 9 months to get my teeth back to perfect alignment BUT only if I am able to commit to wearing the aligners for at least 22 hours each day BECAUSE THE TEETH NEEDS THAT CONSTANT INFLUENCE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION until it is back to where it needs to be. 

So I decided to take the journey regain that straight smile but through the process, it has taught me some great spiritual lessons. 

1) Crooked teeth are like our natural man and they can eventually yield to the pressures of life if there is no constant guiding influence directing them to or keeping them in the straight path

2) Clear aligners are like the principles and ordinances of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we apply them consistently in our daily lives, it will not only keep us on the straight path, BUT anything that is not currently aligned in our lives will be brought into light and realigned through daily repentance. 

3) Just like straightening teeth does not happen in one day, neither does changing our nature. Depending on what needs to be changed, it can take months, and for severe cases, years of discomfort and pain for us to get from our current state to what we can become. So be patient in the process. 

When I went into the orthodontist office to finally pick up my first set of aligners, they had a digital rendering of how my teeth will move with each set of aligners up until the very last aligner. I saw beautiful straight teeth reflected on the screen and I was so excited to know that it WILL become that at the very end. 

Becoming just as Jesus Christ is is our end Goal. Though we don't have the luxury of seeing our incremental progress up to perfection. We can have faith in knowing that because Heavenly Father did send His son to atone for us, He already has the vision of what we WILL become.  And they have provided the way for us to get there. All we need to do is to simply apply it daily and consistently in our lives. 

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