A Journal of a Broken Personality

I'm learning about Alcohol.

I'm learning, I'm learning about Alcohol.

I believe that the devil listens carefully to all our words and takes note of everything we say. Things that say that we will never do and upon hearing it plan with all their might to make you stumble. He really is a thief that not only comes to steal kill but to ultimately destroy (John 10:10). I feel the devil has caught me in my words time and time again, but Praise God for being my redeemer and my rescuer.

Alcohol is one of the devil's greatest weapon on mankind, Alcohol is associated with having a good time, it is used in celebrations, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, parties, sports events etc it is a way of getting people together. A way to socialize so basically a get together plus alcohol equals a good time. In other cases it is used to forget painful memories or drown people's sorrows.

Alcohol has been around for centuries. The first mention of it in the bible is in Genesis 9. Noah had planted a vine yard after the flood and soon drank the wine of it. The alcohol industry is thriving with many varieties of wine and as the years go by, new beers and spirits in variations have evolved. The market caters for all wage incomers, with expensive liquor to the cheap wines, yet they all have the same effect.

I gained the knowledge of alcohol in the most unattractive way; I was 7 at my mothers village I saw my uncles intoxicated by it. They were terrible drunks  shouting at the top of their voices at times becoming violent. I would be so frightened and would end up crying. One memory that hunted me was seeing my uncle slap my aunt, we children my cousins and I were crying in fright and because of that I told myself I would never try alcohol. My parents would also teach my siblings and I about how terrible alcohol is especially after seeing things like that.

I recall the only time I was taught alcohol abuse was being a teenager attending the youth service at my childhood church, I guess it was fair considering it being an issue for the young people. I never learned the spiritual side of alcohol but the basic things that drunkenness was a sin and that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I just wished that I learnt in-depth about alcohol much earlier on in life.

Being a teenager is really rough and way tougher for parents. With raging hormones, body changes, growing knowledge and exposure to the world, this is the age where all the upbringing from childhood is being played out. Characters are either kept or formed and opinions are made.

My high school days began to show me a different picture of Alcohol. Knowing and witnessing what it could do by the example of my relatives, alcohol as a teenager showed the "cool" side. I would hear stories of friends entering nightclubs going for drinking parties and their stories were the same; all would say that they had so much fun.

There was a popular boy's school that organized an after party known as "The Bash" it took place on the night of the Fiji National Secondary Athletics competition. I was a huge fan of this school just because they had such handsome boys and sure enough there were many young girls my age who felt the same. Word would spread like wild fire on ticket prices and where it would be held. The moment the zone happened (divisional competition, before the Nationals)  was the moment I would start planning what I would wear and of course brain storm ideas of how I could either sneak out of the house or plan whose house I would sleeping over. It was this bash that made alcohol look ok.

I tried alcohol in my senior year in high school, my friends and I would meet on Friday nights at a popular night spot that didn't ask for ID cards. This night club would play popular secular songs, it was really fun because we would sing and dance to it. We went to the clubs mainly to dance, mind you alcohol was expensive to us high school students. We would usually collect our change and buy at least a jug. I'd sip a few every now and then but never did I really get drunk.