Eleven-year-old toothpaste?!?

When we returned to our home country two months ago we anticipated that our tropically-acclimated bodies would be in for a shock. After all, we hadn’t really experienced “winter” for a while! What we didn’t anticipate was that we’d have one snowstorm not even two weeks after returning — and then another one last week. To make matters worse, the temperatures have been as low as MINUS 2F (minus 19C) — at least the “feels like” temps!

Thankfully, I found my winter boots, which had been in storage ever since we left for Southeast Asia eleven years ago. AND I found them before the most recent snowstorm! YAY!!! But I also found some things I had no idea I had stored… like a tube of toothpaste. Why on earth did that end up in one of the boxes?!? Would it even be good anymore? Does toothpaste have an expiration date??

Finding that eleven-year-old tube of toothpaste made me think about what all was happening back when I was packing those boxes… preparing to move… wondering about life in a new country… emotionally being both excited and scared.

We’re on the flip side of that now. We’ve left the tropics, and now I’m wondering about life in this new country — being both excited and, in all honesty, a little scared.

I shared in an earlier post (see link below) how my husband and I try to do an annual year-end evaluation. One of the questions we ask ourselves is “How are you different this year from the previous year?” Having moved two months ago and having started a new chapter of our lives I’m wondering how I might be different now from when we left here eleven years ago? What might be some things I’ve learned/ things I’ve needed to UNlearn? As a Christ follower, has His image in my life become clearer/more evident?

I’m continually challenged when I read God’s Word. It’s designed to be like a flashlight that dispels the darkness, that lights the way, that reveals what’s lurking in the shadows and beneath the surface. There are portions of this Book that I’ve read over and over again — and yet that still give me pause. Am I applying what it says? What triggers cause my responses to — ahem! — NOT be in line with what I’m reading? How can my life more genuinely reflect its truths? What do I need to admit to? What do I need to change?

The past couple of weeks I’ve been reading two letters that the apostle Paul wrote to his protege Timothy. Paul was old. He was in prison. But he was wanting to encourage young Timothy and those he was responsible for to live lives beyond reproach, to recognize the importance of orderliness in the church, to realize that following Christ involves both risk and sacrifice, to understand that in the “last days” things were going to get ugly. There are a lot of instructions given! But a couple of things jumped out at me:

• In describing qualifications for church leaders, Paul refers to women being sober-minded (I Timothy 3:11). Hmm… what does THAT mean? One source described sober-minded as having a steady, balanced, self-controlled mind anchored in truth. The opposite is being in a mental fog, impulsive living, unchecked emotions, cultural intoxicaton.¹ That got me to thinking… how well anchored am I in God’s truth? Am I self-controlled when it comes to my mind — what I choose to dwell on? How big a role does “cultural intoxication” play in my life, i.e. does social media take up too much of my time? inform my decisions? Gulp. A lot to ponder.
• Paul also challenged the believers to “pursue righteousness… godliness… faith… love… steadfastness… gentleness” (I Timothy 6:11). How am I doing regarding these things? What do I need to change? do differently?
• “… show perfect courtesy to all people” (2 Timothy 3:2). Wow. Talk about something practical! Courtesy sometimes seems like an old-fashioned concept, and yet it’s one of those things that is never out of date. And it’s to be shown to EVERYONE… no exceptions!

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do with my eleven-year-old tube of toothpaste, but I’m hoping that the person who discovered it a couple of weeks ago is different from the person who packed it back then — in a good sense! And that you, dear reader, will be encouraged as you continue with me to have joy in the journey of this thing called “Life!”

1. bible hub.com “What does it mean to be ‘sober-minded’ in today’s world?” ↩︎

Dress rehearsal…