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While reading in the living room, I heard her crying, sobbing from her room. As she walked across the hallway to the bathroom, I asked her if she was allright. She said she was fine. I though that either she was in physical pain or she was lamenting her boyfriend getting arrested after getting drunk, making terroristic threats and trying to strangle her.
She is diabled and can't get around very well.
Later, when I knocked on her door to get her trash, she had just been crying. I offered to help. "You won't help me", she said matter of factly, with what she wants - cigarettes. "It's what I've been craving." There was an abrupt, nervous pause. Then I went on my way.
Crying because you are out of cigarettes? I questioned if I was doing the right thing. I don't like to see people suffer. But in the long run, I wouldn't be doing her a favor. She's had a cough and cold she doesn't seem to be able to get rid of. She's been sick. Her drunk and disorderly friend who is in jail told me that a doctor was going to try to help her quit cancer sticks.
If I got smokes for her, I'd enable unGodly behavior. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6: 19-20
I had told her, after her "friend" got arrested, that I'll be glad to get things for her, which I've been doing, but of course, I told her not "you know what." She replied "cigarettes." Right. I explained this was the case with Sandi, who died as a result of a heavy life time of cigarette smoking. People have a free will, but I would advise them, especially loved ones to, as Diana Ross and The Supremes sang "Stop, in the name of love. Before you break my heart." My heart is broken, but I must accept God's will. God is sovereign. But this does not absolve us of responsibility.
Sandi quit smoking for more than a year before Johnny Smoke laid her in the ground. She was able to get around less and less, and of course, I wouldn't get that slow poison for her. When she had some funds, she went to great lengths to get that cigarette, even falling on her way walking to a store. When she didn't have money for smokes, she used to pick up butts from the ground and from out of ashtrays.
Opioid abuse is now considered a national crisis. Yes, it's bad. But, other than interests trying to sell stop smoking plans, there is no where near the attention given to the health destroying, heavily addicting subject of smoking. I haven't seen anti smoking ads from the American Heart Association or the American Cancer Society in some time. I was able to dig up some old anti smoking "ads" on the Internet. Some of them are very good. For example, the cartoon parody of the Marboro Cowboy, "Johnny Smoke". In the public service announcement, produced by the American Hearth Association, a cigarette riding a horse, wearing a cowboy hat rides across the plains. And, as the narrator says he has a quick draw, Johnny flips a cigarette up from the pack. "How many more will die," the off camera narrator says, "because of Johnny Smoke." I would add that Johnny Smoke is an evangelist for a rogue mission church: Sister Nicotine and The Holy Smokes.
I also found an add that illustrates, graphically, creatively, the dangers of pregnant women smoking. There's a video of a baby puffing away on a cigarette in his/her mother's womb. The message is clear that when pregnant women smoke, so do their unborn babies.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States.
⦁ Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States. This is nearly one in five deaths.
⦁ Smoking causes more deaths each year than the following causes combined:
⦁ Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
⦁ Illegal drug use
⦁ Alcohol use
⦁ Motor vehicle injuries
⦁ Firearm-related incidents
⦁ More than 10 times as many U.S. citizens have died prematurely from cigarette smoking than have died in all the wars fought by the United States.
⦁ Smoking causes about 90% (or 9 out of 10) of all lung cancer deaths. More women die from lung cancer each year than from breast cancer.
⦁ Smoking causes about 80% (or 8 out of 10) of all deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
⦁ Cigarette smoking increases risk for death from all causes in men and women.
⦁ The risk of dying from cigarette smoking has increased over the last 50 years in the U.S.
A short while back, the crying smoking craver's guy asked to borrow money for something to make cigarettes, pleading that "it's legal.". That's not the point. Aside from him thinking he's entitled to something not a necessity (I would never see that money again), something being legal is not the true measure of something being right. Abortion is legal, so is same sex marriage and other unGodly, immoral acts. Just tonight at a fast food restaurant I gave a homeless friend $2 for something to eat. He couldn't make the homeless meal and get to work. The guy said that business has been picking up. And I saw him get the food. I don't believe he smokes.
As former first lady Nancy Reagan said "Just say no" (to drugs). When someone wants help getting cancer sticks, just saying no is the best thing you can do for them. It's the Christian thing to do!
"Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them." Ephesians 5:11
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