You know with all of the moral and spiritual corruption in this current day and age, it is more important now than ever to make sure that our children are spending their time among good, moral and Christian influences. That way, they will not be subject to the influences of many of their so-called friends who do not live their lives in accordance to the teachings of Jesus Christ. The best way to insure that they do what is right is to get them to join Christian youth groups. Only these Christian youth groups will make sure that they are engaged in responsible and educational opportunities after school instead of getting into trouble.

Although it took some time, my son Billie loves his Christian youth group. Today, they are meeting with a bunch of other Christian youth groups in a fellowship camp way out in the country. His dad has went along as a chaperon, as have several of the other dads and moms from the Christian youth groups to make sure that everything goes safely and responsibly. Although I am not the outdoorsy one in the family, I really almost wish that I was going. It will be so much fun for him with fishing, boating, swimming, soccer and of course sharing the word of God with the members of other Christian youth groups in joyous fellowship.

When he is surfing the internet, I encourage him to interact with online Christian youth groups. He doesn’t like these as much but there are many advantages to them. He can talk this way to Christians not only all over the country but all over the world. He can find out about projects going on in less fortunate areas to bring food, shelter and the word of God to those who are suffering. Most important of all, he can avoid some of the temptations of the internet that we can not always protect him from by using his computer time in a fun and morally responsible way – with other kids from Christian youth groups .

The best thing about Christian youth groups is that they give him something to do that doesn’t involve peer pressure. Sure, my Billie is a good strong kid, and maybe he could resist the lure of drugs and alcohol, but he really shouldn’t have to even be exposed to those kinds of influences, to say nothing of the other temptations that kids in their teens face. With Christian youth groups he doesn’t have to

There are so many products available to help us maintain good oral hygiene but these products do not necessarily insure that we will have good breath as well. Brushing, flossing and using a good mouthwash all help to keep our mouths clean, but sometimes we need a little more to keep our mouths fresh. Currently my favorite breath freshener is the breath strip.

I discovered that brushing, flossing and rinsing are not enough to have fresh breath all day long when I was in college. I came home after two consecutive semesters at college. My mother had not seen me for months and the very first thing she said was, “Your breath is atrocious! Are you dieting again?” She did say this in a way that only a mother who desperately missed her daughter would.

This comment made me very distraught mostly because I had just seen my romantic interest at the time before leaving. Although I had brushed, flossed and rinsed, I could have used a good breath strip to freshen up before saying goodbye. I still think that my coffee, cigarette and dieting habits contributed to my breath problem and to the ultimate demise of my college love life. Perhaps a good breath strip could have saved the relationship.

After discovering that I had what is technically known as bad breath, I went on a breath-freshening rampage. I constantly chewed gum. I kept mints on hand at all times and I went through gallons of breath spray each year. However, I find the breath strip to be superior to the other products for a few reasons.

Gum loses its flavor relatively quickly and gum is not appropriate during all occasions. You can’t gnaw on gum during a dinner date but you can quickly freshen up your mouth with a breath strip in almost no time at all. Gum is also a potential enemy for dieters. Gum can actually cause bloating because you swallow air as you chew. I learned this the hard way, too. Air in the stomach is not an issue with breath strips.

Mints are not much better than gum and they have calories, too. Mints take awhile to dissolve and sometimes the aftertaste is worse than the initial bad breath. I had a hard time with breath sprays as well. First of all, there is a stigma about using a breath spray in public that is downright cheesy. You also have to have good aim. A breath strip is discreet and socially acceptable and will be my mouth freshening choice from now on.