by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
I was thinking about you today. Thinking about the choices you’ve been making. You’ve told many people that drugs are not the way to get what you want out of life. In fact, you’ve stated that they are keeping you from the things you most desire. Yet, you continue to hurt yourself, and that leaves me puzzled. How does an intelligent young man make stupid choices?<\/p>\n
I remember being young, looking forward to the time I was old enough to make my own decisions. Then, I knew, I would be a man because my choices would be my own and whatever resulted would be my responsibility. Even here, however, Satan can twist things to trap us in sin. Too many young people make choices, not based on right or wrong, or based on what brings them close to their goals. Instead, they pick things solely because it isn’t what parents or other authoritative people would pick. Satan insists that it can’t be really your decision if other people agree with it.<\/p>\n
That is the trap Rehoboam fell into (I Kings 12:1-16). When he took the throne, the people of Israel asked him for relief from the taxes his father imposed during his reign. His father’s advisors considered the idea and told Rehoboam that it would be a good way to win the people’s hearts. However, Rehoboam also talked to the people of his generation. They told him to assert himself and show the people who is king. Rehoboam liked his friend’s plan. He told the people that if they thought the taxes were heavy before, they hadn’t seen anything yet. The result was that he lost ten of the twelve tribes.<\/p>\n
Instead of weighing his decision on what he wanted to accomplish, Rehoboam chose a way that was different from what his father or his advisors would have done. Looking back, it was obviously a dumb choice. But isn’t that exactly the same thing you are doing? Making choices simply because they are contrary to what even you know is best solely to prove you are an adult? And in the end, you prove you remain a child being led by the nose by drugs.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Independence by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I was thinking about you today. Thinking about the choices you’ve been making. You’ve told many people that drugs are not the way to get what you want out of life. In fact, you’ve stated that they are keeping you from the things you most desire. Yet, you continue to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65688","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15400,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people\/independent-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":0},"title":"Independent Thinking","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Independent Thinking by Jeffrey W. Hamilton During the teenage years, we begin to assert our independence. We want to make our own decisions about our lives. For many years other people have made decisions for us, but now we want to make our own. In many ways this is desirable.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/thinker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15404,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people\/going-with-the-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":1},"title":"Going With the Flow","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Going With the Flow by Jeffrey W. Hamilton We would like to think of ourselves as independent thinkers. We chose what we want to do and where we want to go. But an odd thing happens along the way. While the decisions may be different from our parents, the decisions\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/flow.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8227,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/preparation-for-a-lifetime\/finances\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":2},"title":"Finances","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Finances Money does not come from an endless supply and it is surprising how many young couples are unaware of its limits. Too often parents supply their children with the basic necessities of food, shelter, and clothing. They often give their children many extras, such as a car, gas allowances,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6641,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/job\/jobs-response-an-eliphazs-rebuttal\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":3},"title":"Job’s Response and Eliphaz’s Rebuttal","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Class 4, Chapters 12-15 Chapter 12 Job 12:2\u2014Well you guys really know it all. You\u2019ve got it all figured out! When you die we won\u2019t know anything. 12:3\u2014I know all of this stuff already\u2014so does everybody!! 12:4\u2014Look at what\u2019s happened to me. I\u2019ve spoken to God and I\u2019m blameless but\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25976,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":4},"title":"Searching for My Friend","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Searching for My Friend by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Once again I lost a dear young friend to the seductive snare of drugs. It grieves me to the depth of my heart to see a life full of potential and capable of great joy being twisted toward ruin, sadness, and loneliness.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Searching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":65606,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/searching-for-my-friend\/the-consequences-of-choices\/","url_meta":{"origin":65688,"position":5},"title":"The Consequences of Choices","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Consequences of Choices by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I was thinking more about your claim that life was just a game to you. I can see how it appears to be a game to you. You've been playing hide and seek with your family and friends, trying to see how\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65688\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}