Drugs and Alcohol..Why?

When I was in High School our football team won the state championship. A couple of guys who had graduated two years earlier rented a couple hotel rooms at a ski resort to throw a big party. I had been dating a girl for three years and she and I did not "party". The evening of the party a couple we were doubling with asked if we would go with them. They knew we didn't want to go but if we did it would give them an excuse to just say hi and leave. We agreed. 

As my girlfriend and I entered the room it was full of our friends. Someone jumped up and offered me and my girlfriend a comfortable lazy boy type chair. Immediately the host came over and tossed me a beer. I tossed it back and told him that I don't drink. He tried every way to convince me to join in; you just won a state championship...celebrate, everyone else is drinking (and they were), I never won a championship and I'm drinking, etc. I told him no. So he figure champagne would be okay and offered me that. I declined. What I had noticed while this was going on was that the room became silent and everyone was watching me to see what I'd do. We had been there about 10 whole minutes and I told my girlfriend I had been there long enough...let's go. We left the room and found the other couple coming from the other room also disgusted and ready to leave (that room was sporting an orgy). As we crossed the snowy parking lot my girlfriend put her arm through mine and squeezed me saying, "I'm proud of you, Alan." I felt ten feet tall. It also hit me, what if I had taken that drink, what would she have done?

A few weeks later my family was driving to Grandma's for a Sunday visit when my father said he was proud of me. When asked why he told me that a friend of mine had told him about the party and how they looked up to me for keeping to my standards and that they had ruined their life that night. 

As an athlete I can not understand anyone who plays any type of sport to drink alcohol, it destroys your body. One who drinks can't run as fast or far as prior to drinking. As a missionary I met many people in Amsterdam that were heavy into drugs. One attractive young woman lived on the street and her mind was so far gone she couldn't remember her name or carry on a conversation, all she could do was sit and try to sing (although she couldn't sing words as she couldn't remember words). My uncle destroyed his life with drugs and alcohol. He lost his family, his home and his business. He died a lonely and miserable death. My father and I were the only people he had left that cared about him. A former employer went out drinking with her boss for his birthday. He became so drunk he ended up deficating all over himself, and this is suppose to be fun?

I compare drinking with putting a spoon full of sugar in the gas tank of your car everyday. It will not take too long before your car has problems. I see people who drink and most all of them have problems connected to their drinking. 

Why is it okay for adults to drink when it is not for children? At what age do we become stupid enough that it becomes okay? The same with other "adult" things; language, sex, etc,. If something is not suitable for children it should not be suitable for adults. I told my children as they were growing up that if mom and dad did it so could they, but that they would never see mom and dad; drink, use drugs, use bad language, watch inappropriate movies or other type things. My children never questioned what they could or could not do.

There are so many things we can do and enjoy life...let's not be stupid using things that destroy.

That's it for today.

Alan