Daily Guideposts - 20 Day SampleSample

A Beautiful Smile

Our friends Kip and Laura missed Bible study for two weeks when they went to a family reunion. Their former exchange student Tong stayed at their house to care for their gardens and all their ornamental hanging plants. Kip and Laura have welcomed exchange students into their home for the past eight years. When Tong lived with them, he spent much of the first few weeks with his host family having extensive dental care, because he had never been to a dentist.

Each week at church we would see his painful smile and ask, “What did the dentist do to you this time?”

My wife and I checked on Tong twice while Kip and Laura were gone. Tong was treating their plants with near-reverence, watering often to prevent the desert sun from damaging them. I tried to thank Tong for doing so much work for our friends, but he interrupted me. “Is all right,” he said in broken English. “They already do so much to me.”

Tong may not distinguish between to and for but I think it is my English that is broken. The next time someone does something to me— even if it’s a dentist doing something painful to my teeth—I will think of Tong’s now beautiful smile and be grateful.

Dear God, thank You for the good things You do to us every day.

—Tim Williams
Digging Deeper: Ps. 92:1–4