side benefits

This might seem crazy but God can use trips to 3rd World Countries to work on your personal hygeine.

One of my great temptations in life that I have succomb to since I was...6 or so (my mom will have to verify) is biting my nails. I know, yucky gross habit, and it is probably the reason why I have a cold a lot of the time. Now, I'm not going to hypothesize how I started to bite my little tasties (I probably need some counselling to figure that out), but it has been a lifelong struggle. And I've tried it all -- the bad tasting stuff you put on them, incentive plans, sheer willpower, and nothing has worked.

But when we started to put this Swaziland trip together, and as I was talking to my family about the possibility of me going, they were all for it, except for one thing -- If I was going to go, I needed to stop biting my nails.

Period.

Of course I said, sure! No problem! Love to!

But it has proven to be difficult, UNTIL these past 2 weeks, when we entered the "it's coming up really close zone."

And the more I started to see the trip face to face, and think about meeting Zwakele, and seeing the country that we are investing in as a church -- the more I met with our team and thought about the amazing times and impact the trip would have on our lives, the easier it got to stop my lifelong habit.

And so, I'm happy to say for 2 weeks now, I've gone cold turkey. I am using a little polish just to remind me (clear nail growing polish -- don't worry!), but so far so good. And I must say it was the hope and excitement of the future that is making it happen.

And to be honest, biting my nails doesn't have the draw it used to. Tomorrow in church, we are talking about temptation, and one of the things that combats temptation in my opinion is hope -- hope for something better. Right now, Swaziland is that for me, and I am grateful.

And so are my nails!

jeff