“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. James 1:5

One sunny afternoon, my best friend and I attended our sons’ softball game. While sitting in the bleachers, Doris offered me taffy in the form of a sucker. I gladly accepted. After licking the sucker for a bit, I decided to bite off a chunk of it. When I tried to open my mouth and remove the rest of the sucker, I could not! My eyetooth was firmly held in the taffy. I jerked the sucker with a twist and my tooth came out with it! The tooth broke off right at the gum.

Of course, that mandated a trip to the dentist. The verdict was a cap for the tooth, with a root canal. The dentist informed me that he did not do that kind of work and I would have to go to a specialist. After checking out a couple of men (one only did certain teeth and, of course, the two I needed repaired were not his specialty) so I would have to use two different orthodontists and the final cost would be well over a thousand dollars.

I knew we did not have that kind of money so I took my problem to the Lord. I prayed earnestly about the money matter for I did not feel that we should put that much of God’s money into just two teeth. I did not know whether to have them pulled and false ones made or just do without that one broken tooth, or what. After several weeks of praying it seemed that God directed me to talk with a missionary dentist whom our church supported. He was home on furlough from Africa and we knew him personally.

I called Dr. Johnny and asked for an interview with him. After relating my problem, he told me that any dentist could do root canals, but they didn’t like to do it because of the possibilities of severe complications and subsequent lawsuits from patients. He told me to go back to a dentist I had gone to several years before in Macon and that he would call that particular dentist himself and talk to him about my problem. I did that, and my favorite dentist repaired my tooth (and the one beside) and it cost me just a little over $200.00!

God does care about our problems whatever they may be. He promised, “Come unto me all Ye who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you rest”. I would have never thought of going to a missionary doctor just home from Africa about my problems – but God knew just what I needed. God is good – all the time!

Audrey Byars Mullen waldokeith@cox.net