My friends keep teasing me because I don’t drink. They ask me what I am afraid of. What can I tell them to make them back off?
Tell them it’s not because of fear that you don’t drink. Tell them it’s because you are smart.
Proverbs 22:3, 5 says, “The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, But the naive go on, and are punished for it. Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards himself will be far from them.”
Just because all your friends are doing something doesn’t mean it’s a wise thing for you to do. Alcoholism is America’s third largest health problem, following heart disease and cancer. It affects ten million people, costs sixty billion dollars, and is implicated in two hundred thousand deaths annually. Alcohol is involved in 50 percent of deaths by motor vehicle and fire, 67 percent of murders, and 33 percent of suicides. It contributes to morbidity in certain malignancies and to many diseases of the endocrine, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and nervous systems. The suicide rate of alcoholics has been found to be six to twenty times higher than that of the general population.
With this damaging evidence, if alcohol were to be presented for legalization as a drug today, it surely would not be accepted (adapted from Hot Topics by Bill Myers, pp. 81-82).
Physically alcohol can damage your liver, put undue stress on your heart and impair your memory. Emotionally it can cause you embarrassment from stupid behavior and create anxiety, cause family hassles, guilt from improper actions and a poor self-image. What happens is, that alcohol limits your freedom. It limits your ability to make right decisions and to act upon them.
Don’t give in to your friends’ pressure. Hold firm. They will probably continue to tease you. But know that deep down they respect you for your convictions.
Taken from The Teenage Q&A Book, pg. 76
Question: What practical step can you take when you’re in a situation where there’s alcohol being served?
Question: How can you prepare yourself ahead of time for situations like these?
