Med Alert

"The waywardness of the inexperienced will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them." Proverbs 1:32

The topic of today's devotional is teen prescription drug abuse.

The story is of a mom who wonder's why she didn't find a 17-year-old girl's intense desire to babysit her attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder son to be strange. Until the next morning, when she went to give her son his medication and most of the previously full pill bottle was empty. She admits that her first reaction was anger, as mine would have been. But she says after her quite time with God, she realized that she needed to loving confront the girl about her problem. After all, the issue was not that her son was short on his medication, but that this girl had a potentionally life-threatening addiction.

I have to admit I don't have any teenager's in my home at the moment. However, my husband and I do work with the youth in our church. When I was first reading this, I was thinking well this devotional really doesn't pertain to me, but it does. I need to start keeping my eyes open and aware of any potential problems that may be going on in the lives of the youth that we love and serve, and keep my eyes open for anything that might pop up with my son, who is an up and coming teenager, and will be there far sooner than I am ready for him to be.

I understand that prescription drug abuse is on the rise amoung young people. I know they think it's harmless, and it's just one pill, what will it hurt. I remember being a teenager and thinking nothing can touch you, you are invincible, and overall you are just a good person. While I never dabbled with drugs myself as a teenager, I know plenty of people who did, and regret that they had. My prayer is that my husband and I can have a compassionate heart toward those who do have a problem, and that we can help our youth to guard themselves against these things that Satan tries to through at them.

I really don't think any of the youth in our church have this problem. But I also know that this can change in the blink of an eye. And if we live in denial, saying "oh that won't happen to us, or to our youth" then we are complacant fools, as it says in Proverbs 1:32, the anchor verse for this devotional. And if we become complacant fools, then this could ultimately destroy us. Our youth are our future, and the future of our church. And if we stand by and watch them destroy themselves and do nothing about it, then our complancy will destroy us to.

Deeper walk: Proverbs 9: 10-12 NAS
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you. If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you scoff, you alone will bear it."