Have you flossed today? …

It’s hard enough to get kids … or adults! … to brush their teeth. But floss?!

Brushing your teeth is necessary for good dental health. But not good enough. Even after brushing your teeth you can still have plaque on teeth as well as food particles embedded between your teeth. A build-up of plaque and foreign particles can result in tooth decay and gum disease. To help avoid such problems, we should floss after meals as a means of removing any foreign particles that don’t belong on or between the teeth.

Flossing your teeth enhances good dental health.

And mental flossing enhances your spiritual health.

Joe Slaughter posted a comment a few days ago that included the phrase “mental floss,” but the comment didn’t extrapolate on the phrase. But my thinking did!

The average person has up to 70,000 thoughts per day. On top of that, we are bombarded with thousands of external messages daily. And on top of that, we’re flooded with the thoughts of others each day as well. With all that “data” floating around in our mind, there are some things that get “stuck” in the crevices and folds of our minds that aren’t good for our mental … or spiritual … health.

To keep our minds free from thoughts that are not good for us, we need a mental floss!

How do we keep our minds cleansed so our thoughts are set on what is healthy? Or, what can we use each day as “mental floss?”

It starts with the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sinful thoughts and who also guides us to truth. It continues with the Word of God which directs us in how to live life according to the will of God. It’s refreshed with prayer as we take our thoughts to God and work them out. And finally, in Philippians 4:8 we are directed to focus our thoughts on certain things: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” and Paul further adds to this in Colossians 3:1-3, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.”

By applying these things daily as our “mental floss,” we protect ourselves from thoughts that are harmful to us and maintain better spiritual health.

Have you flossed today?

Scotty