Smoking, alcohol and drugs are bad
When you are young, you start out with a relatively clean slate. That is, you don’t have any bad habits that take up your time and money and energy and health and focus, and you can develop yourself well, in accordance with the talents God has given you.
Such a state of mind and body is a state to be treasured and carefully guarded.
For most of us, childhood is relatively calm and we aren’t in much danger of getting entangled in things like smoking and alcohol or drugs.
But when we become teenagers, we suddenly find ourselves a lot more susceptible to peer pressure. At the same time, we begin to feel boldly adventurous, ready to try out new things. We don’t realize that we are in a period of our lives where the decisions we make will affect us positively or negatively for the rest of our lives.
The Bible says that a prudent man sees evil and hides himself.
Prov 22:3 The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it.
Prov 27:12 A prudent man sees evil and hides himself, the naive proceed and pay the penalty.
Smoking is an evil habit. It is evil because it affects your health, it saps your energy, and it drains away the money God gave you to use in better ways. Worst of all, it is very difficult to give up.
Alcohol is an even greater evil. It is so because it not only affects your health, but it also affects your mind, causing you to do things that are damaging to yourself, and preventing you from being the best that you can be. Furthermore, it also significantly, and negatively, affects the lives of those around you, especially your spouse and children. An addiction to alcohol is also difficult to give up.
Lastly, but certainly not the least, the consumption of mind altering drugs, is the worst of the three. It renders you useless for any good work, sapping your energy and mental focus, gripping you with a hold that is almost impossible to escape from.
A proud person will have such a high opinion of himself that he thinks that he can engage in one or more of the above addictions without getting addicted, or being able to stop before he is addicted. He may try it once, and stop, and thereby conclude that he is able to control himself. And then he tries it again, and it makes him feel good. Soon, he is dependent, and before he knows it, he is addicted. Then he tries to stop and finds that he cannot. By then, it is too late.
Some people see that there are others who are apparently or genuinely able to control their consumption of tobacco, alcohol or drugs. They therefore make the great mistake of thinking that if someone else can control their use of these things so can they. Alas, by the time they find out that they cannot, it is too late.
Anyone who tries to convince you to consume tobacco, alcohol or drugs, in any amount, for any reason, at any time, is not your friend, but your mortal enemy. If you do not realize and internalize that, you are in great danger of getting entangled in a hole that is so deep that it is unlikely you will emerge from it without great loss.
Some people use tobacco, alcohol and / or drugs to help them survive pain or anxiety or timidity or low self-esteem. It is like moving from the sofa where your kitten is into a cage with a hungry tiger. It is better to be timid and introverted for the rest of your life than to be addicted to tobacco or alcohol or drugs.
So then, no matter what happens, make a covenant with yourself to never touch tobacco or alcohol or drugs. Further, if anyone offers you tobacco or alcohol or drugs, or tries to convince you to imbibe such things, break up the friendship and distance yourself from that person after one or two warnings.
Don’t go to parties where such things are used, especially in the years when you are not strong enough to prevent yourself from being influenced by people who use these things. Remember, a prudent man sees evil and hides himself, but the naïve proceed and pay the penalty.
I have seen many people who have destroyed their lives because of tobacco or alcohol or drugs. And it breaks my heart to see such people. Please, don’t even make it remotely possible for you to make yourself another such statistic. If you fall into these pits, God is trying to tell you one thing – that you are a very, very proud person; that you are so proud that He couldn’t give you the grace to stay away from such obvious foolishness.
|