Two potatoes were best friends. They went to potato school together and played potato games together. One of these potatoes started hanging around with a bad crowd. His friend tried to warn him that they were trouble, but he wouldn’t listen. He soon started smoking, drinking, and taking drugs. His friend tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen. His habits got worse and worse, until one day he took so many drugs that he lost consciousness and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

As soon as his friend heard about this, he hurried to the hospital. He paced back and forth, hoping his friend would pull through. The doctor walked into the waiting room with a grim look on his face.

“How is he, Doc?” the potato asked.

“Your friend’s going to live,” he answered, “but he’ll be a vegetable for the rest of his life.”

Drugs kill. Cigarettes cause cancer and heart disease. Every day, 37 people in the United States die in car crashes with an alcohol-impaired driver. This is one death every 39 minutes. These are well known facts, yet millions of people are addicted to one or more of these habits.

Maybe that’s because we think “just a little” won’t hurt me. I won’t get hooked. That’s what most drug addicts said. We think bad things only happen to other people. The cemetery is full of people who thought likewise.

God created us, and it is our responsibility to take care of our bodies in a manner that give honor to Him. When we use any dangerous substance, we are slowly destroying one of God’s most precious creations.

I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?