I really felt bad for my mother. Even at my very young age, I could tell she was struggling more than I was.

You see, I was afraid to pull my own lose baby teeth. Many of my friends did it, but I couldn’t stand the thought. Some even worked to get their teeth lose so they could lay them under their pillows and get money from the tooth fairy. In those days, that was usually a quarter or two. Though there were a couple of kids in my class who received a whole dollar. At this time, you could buy a candy bar for fifty cents and lollipop for a quarter.

My dad usually pulled my teeth, but I had to wait until he got in from work. My mother was a little on the queasy side, so she couldn’t bring herself to stick her hands in my mouth and pull a tooth.

Unfortunately for her, there were a few times I simply couldn’t wait on my dad because my tooth was bothering me so much. So she did the only thing she could do. She went to her “thang-ma-jigs” drawer and pulled out a long string. Actually, I think utility drawer is the proper term. Anyway, she tied one end of string around my lose tooth and the other around a door handle.

To be honest, I felt kinda silly as I sat there with the string going from my mouth to the door knob. I wondered how many other kids had their teeth pulled that way.

“You ready?” I simply nodded in response to my mom’s question. She closed her eyes, turned her head, and gave the door a hard shove. I still remember the pained look on her face and as a child that confused me. I was the one with the string around my tooth; not her.

Now that I am a mother, I understand it, but for the record, I didn’t pull Sara’s teeth with a string wrapped around a door knob.

Mom’s way worked. The tooth popped out with the string still tied around it. Then we both celebrated. My mom did because she was glad the trauma was over and I did because I would be getting money to buy candy.

We pulled my teeth a couple of more times that way. Then came the day it didn’t work. Instead of popping out, the tooth was jerked up a little, but it pretty much stayed in place.

Boy, did it hurt and it continued to hurt.

When my dad came in from work, I was ready for him to pull it. I knew it would really hurt this time, but I was tired of the pain and wanted it to stop. He did and it didn’t hurt as
bad as I thought it would. Here’s the best part: the tooth fairy left me extra money under my pillow. Mom said the tooth fairy felt bad that my tooth had hurt me so much.

Forget candy, I had enough money to buy a comic book with that one.

I didn’t ask mom to help me get a tooth out after that because I pulled them myself. That is a part of growing up.

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11

Pulling teeth is one of the many milestones we go through as we grow up and prepare to face the world. But how about our spiritually maturity? Are we mature enough to face the world as Christians who are ready to make a difference for Christ?

Fortunately we don’t have to pull any teeth to grow spiritually, but we may need to pluck out some bad habits. Best of all, we don’t have strings tied to door handles