When many of us were kids back in the 60's and 70's we were encouraged to bring an apple to school every day to eat after lunch. I was taught that the apple helped "clean your teeth" and an apple sitting on a desk became a symbol of school children everywhere.

People pay a lot of attention to their teeth, especially making them bright and white. And there are so many ways I have heard over the years. Some people use UV light treatments, and pay big bucks. I have been told a couple drops of bleach on your toothbrush once a week does the trick. Sometimes others swear to use soda, and I think they mean baking soda not "pop". Still others put in strips, have their dentist grind the yellow off, and of course specialized treatments like polishing. Some folks just brush brush brush with special gritty toothpastes. Even when I go to various websites I see advertisements like "click here to see this old time secret to making your teeth white!"

More than ever it's important to folks, not just for that pearly white smile but because clean teeth helps keep your gums healthy. Healthy gums lead to fresher breath and, surprisingly, overall better health of the entire body. Whodathunkit? (Don't believe me? Ask Danielle)

Yet we put dyes on our teeth, sometimes from the food we eat, like blueberries and cotton candy. Chocolate and coffee do a number on them, giving them a brown or yellow haze. Unfortunately if you do have bad gums even blood will stain them a rusty color.

You might think, it's no big deal. So what if what I eat taints them? I brush them so that's all I need to do. Well, no. Brushing is great but a dentist told me once the secret to shiny teeth is to not drink (no wine staining) not to smoke (tar) and avoid junk food. In other words, in general stick to things like... apples! Good food and brushing together (after every meal, yeah yeah who really does this? After *every* meal?) was the trick.

He was probably right - after all the same is true for our spiritual cleanliness. While it is true that it's what comes out of a man that defiles him, and not what goes in, that does not take anything away from passages that tell us to avoid sin and dwell on "good things." When you fill your head with mindless junk obviously mindless junk is what is going to take over your thoughts, reflect in your spiritual life, and come out of your mouth,

In TV commercials we are told we must have a winning smile to capture the heart of the pretty girl - they show someone who smiles and their ugly yellow smile has the other person running away. But having a bright white smile gets you all the girls! They always seem to aim these commercials at guys because I think they need it more. Probably since girls know better. The end

Randy

The above is a plenty fine bulletin, so stop now if you are faint of heart, Don't say I didn't warn you,

When I was a kid in the 70's I didn't brush my teeth for years, As you would suspect, my choppers got more and more yellow. Suddenly one day at the dinner table my sister exclaimed "Hey Randy has teeth as white as snow!" and it was true. My parents tried and tried to puzzle it out but I wasn't very forthcoming on answers. Frankly, I was quite surprised myself, It wasn't like I started brushing!

You know how sometimes life goes really well and you think that God must approve of what you're doing, because "miracles" occur? You don't see any reason to change, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and so on? That is what I thought. My parents were worried about why my teeth were suddenly white and I'm like who cares, they're white? Isn't that what you want?

So many people wallow in sin and don't see what they've gotten themselves into. Since everything is going along nice, no one is sick, plenty of money, etc they don't want to hear about spiritual health or service or sacrifice, They're happy and healthy, isn't that what God wants for us? Yet they ought to consider carefully what exactly they are consuming as spiritual food. It may have consequences.

For instance, have you ever heard of Milk-Bone dog biscuits? They freshen breath and clean teeth - for dogs. Apparently little boys, too. I suggest the orange ones, they are cheese flavored. Randy