Someone asked me a few weeks ago to explain why I had never been tempted to drink alcoholic beverages. That led me to think and write about the influences in a life that can encourage or discourage drinking alcohol.
Influences That Discourage Drinking Alcohol
Parents, Media, Peer Pressure, and the Bible
As a child, I was warned by my parents that I should not drink alcoholic beverages. So from my childhood drinking alcohol was never much an issue in my home. Today many things can influence a person to drink alcohol, and the same influences were around in the early 1960’s. I can remember watching the old black and white tube as a child, way back before color television existed, and whenever a commercial came on for alcohol or cigarettes, my father would get up and turn the TV off or change the channel. He did not want his children influenced by the media to think that beer was a good thing. Parents can create a habit when handling a problem, whether the problem is eating, drinking, anger, etc. Children are taught by the example of the parent. Problems must be handled in a Godly way. This did not really sink home to me until I had my own kids. Our tradition was to sit down as a family for dinner at the table. Then my wife would ask each of us, “What do you want to drink tonight?” One night when our oldest son Joshua was about three years of age, he spouted out, “I want beer!” Well, you can imagine my first reaction was shock since we do not drink beer, and then laughter (of course, the worst thing to do would have been to laugh, so I did not do that!) Being the quick thinker that I am :), I immediately asked him, “So why do you want to drink beer?” I am thinking in my mind, “Our son has never been around anyone who drinks, so where on earth did this come from?” Joshua’s answer was an honest one - just as if we had asked him what kind of chewing gum he would like – “because cowboys drink beer!” Wow! It dawned on me that the only cowboys Joshua had seen would have been on a beer commercial on the television or in a TV western, as all the cowboys seem to go to the saloon. The television had influenced my toddler so much that he thought beer was just like Pepsi. My response was “Josh, bad cowboys drink beer, and good cowboys drink milk. Now, what do you want to drink?” And this time, Josh said he wanted to drink milk (whew!) The media has a great influence on our kids at a young, tender age and we must be careful what we allow them to see and hear – on TV, on the radio, in magazines, even on billboards. As the kids grow older, we cannot prevent media’s influences on our children; but while they are young, from one to about five years of age, we can choose what influences their young minds. After this age, teachers and schoolmates will also influence them. As they enter school age, the dangers of drinking alcohol can be understood. We had our children in a Christian school which also taught about the dangers of alcohol. It is important for parents to set the foundation of character early, so the children will be able to handle the influences of others.
Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Another influence on children is the examples of those around them, and we call that peer pressure. While growing up, I was never around people or friends who drank. My parents somehow were able to shelter me from that. As I grew older and became a teenager, I would see people drinking. I do remember smelling alcohol on someone’s breath at the fair, and the smell was so bad that I could not imagine that it would taste good. My close friends did not drink, so I did not have the peer pressure to drink. Peer pressure is the biggest influence causing teens and college students to drink for the first time. Teens must choose their friends wisely, and parents can help in this area by being aware of and getting to know their teen’s friends. Our house was always the place to be when our sons were growing up. We had many sleepovers with five – ten guys in our house. But when I think about it now, it was rare for our sons to go to their friend’s homes to spend the night.
I remember discussing beer with my parents many times. My dad was in the Navy from 1944-1946 and he was the only one on his ship that did not drink. He had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior as a teen, and because of his commitment to Christ, he decided he would not drink.
First Corinthians 6:19-20 teaches us as Christians: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
I also remember as a teen telling my dad that I would never drink, and he cautioned me to be careful in boasting about what I would never do. As the saying goes, “but for the grace of God, there go I.” That conversation has always stuck with me, and I understand now that we must always be careful of bragging about ourselves. We need to be depending on God to help us through any situation in life. Because I made the choice not to take that first drink, this has prevented me from ever becoming addicted to alcohol.
Proverbs 20:1 says “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”
Proverbs 23:31 also says “Do not look on the wine when it is red, When it sparkles in the cup, When it swirls around smoothly”
There are other things that I am tempted to do that would be just as wrong as becoming an alcoholic. For example, the Bible also teaches that gluttony is a sin, and I could easily become a glutton if not careful. Even though I am not tempted by alcohol, I could eat ten meals a day, and I would be completely happy.
Proverbs 23:2 says of gluttony: “And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.”
