Habits are those character traits in us which we hardly have control over. Rather our lives and existence are controlled by such habits. Some habits no doubt are positive while others are detrimental. As a matter of fact what I am saying is that people with good habits are less in number compared with those with bad habits. People seem to develop more interest on the negative things than the positive.
Take for instance, the young people of today who enjoy social net works more than anything in the world. Some do not mind staying glued to face book pages, twitter, 2-go and other forms of social net works from the beginning of the day to the next day and this they practice on daily basis. When they hook on to these social net-works like araldite gum, it will only take the intervention and deliverance from above to free them but since they hardly get such liberations, their lives are constantly in a mess because by the time they will realize it, if ever, it would have been too late.
Other people indulge in negative acts like womanizing. No day or night passes without sleeping with a woman. As a matter of urgency, they can sleep with anything, even those that are unsleepable including dogs and cats. Yes! The beast in them can take them that far and the result has always been that of disgrace and degradation. It beats my imagination to know that some humans can sleep with lower animals for whatever reason. That is not only degrading but a big slap to the God who is a God of orderliness. This trait of sleeping with anything, some bask in the euphoria,
and they enjoy it so much that when they do not, they hardly feel better. But how can anyone ever feel good in such animalistic habits? How indeed can anyone ever feel great swimming in the ocean of debasement?
There are other bad habits which time and space may not allow me capture at the moment, but I will also spare a little space to talk about good habits which people have developed over years and they have been handsomely rewarded. One of such is the habit of reading. This reading habit has actually helped such people develop their intellectual abilities. When you sit in deliberation with such people, they cannot but produce meaningful, effective and factual arguments. The reason is the fact that they have wider knowledge in virtually everything. This is because they have read extensively and who will not want to stay close to an intelligent being? Of course his presence will always be a delight to all, including fools.
Some have formed the habit of not staying outside their homes beyond 6pm. Those people with such habits have time to interact with family members. To the married, enough time to relate with wife, husband and children, and also they have time to monitor the happenings within their enclaves. Such people can hardly suffer kidnapping or other negative happenings which do take place in the odd hours. They may never run into armed robbers or killers who operate at night. To some extent, such habits help them enhance security. Chief among these habits that piss me off is drunkenness. Drunkenness is a condemnable habit even the Holy Book abhors it (prov. 20:1, prov.23:29-35). In these scriptures the bible states that wine is a mocker and it is only good for those who want to parish. I am not here to argue whether it is good to take alcohol or not. My own faith abhors taking it at all but my major interest is on those who overindulge in it and the effects it has on them and their families.
Whatever you do that lacks moderation is bad. Those who dwell on ten green bottles or twenty as the case may be are actually brooding danger to their health and the society in general. Prov. 23:29-32 talks about the danger of alcohol. This portion asks pertinent questions, like who has woe? Who has sorrow, contentions, complaints, wounds without a cause, redness of eyes? It provided the answer that those that have the above-stated diseases are those who linger long at the wine. The Holy book goes on to admonish that “we should not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup because it bites like a serpent and stings like a viper”.
After going through these portions of the scripture, I asked myself how alcohol can bite like a serpent and stings like a viper? Well, the sting and bite come with the after effect. At the moment of drinking, what one experiences is momentry joy but when the alcohol takes full control of one, the person involved usually behaves like a lunatic. A drunkard stinks and misbehaves. Those who over-indulge in it smell terribly. As a wife, when you sleep close to him, you can hardly breathe any fresh air; the whole atmosphere of the night will be covered and sealed with the ooze of alcohol instead of the air of love.
Consequently, some men after drinking, usually experience complete and total loss of their reasoning. Most of them end up sleeping in the gutters, market squares, dust bins and other dirty odd places. Some times, their wives and children will go searching for them and carry them home like babies for them to come home. Some are never found and so they end up sleeping in their shame till day break. What a calamity!!
A drunkard-husband is a “must not have” in a home because his presence brings shame, disgrace, disrespect and dishonor to the family.
Both the wife and the children of a drunkard hardly enjoy home peace because those who manage to get home with their half senses often times unleash their madness on the household especially on their wives. The wife suffers his foolishness. In that state, no food ever tastes good because his tongue has been badly corrupted by booze, the furniture in the house are never in their rightful positions. There is no aspect of the centre that holds for a drunkard. In that feat of anger, everything around him including his wife suffers battering either by tongue or by punches.
Drunkards can hardly keep any penny in their pockets. Every money in their hand is not for family up-keep rather it will be spent at the bar. Such men are lazy and unproductive. They are worst than infidels because they always fail in every family obligation. The wife is left to feed, cloth and shelter the family. The mere mention of children’s school fees can earn the woman an untimely death. What a marriage! What a father!
To this man who leaves and swims in alcohol, what legacy do you think you are leaving in you home? Your children if care is not taken will turn to vagabonds’, your wife may wake up one day and say “I’m done”, then you will be left in the world of loneliness, hardship and with nothing to call your own except the green bottles.
And to my dear wife of a drunkard out there. I implore you to take heart. Be strong in the lord. The power in his name will one day set you free. Do not relent in prayers, one day, God will look at your travails and the book of remembrance will be opened in your favour. God will restore the greatest peace ever in your home. Throwing him away or calling it quit may not be the best antidote, what you need is an over dose of patience to pull through.
I wish you plenty of wisdom, patience and grace!
