(Compiled from numerous sources)

I started smoking when I was 12, during the summer school break. By the time school started again, I was a fully committed smoker, and have been one ever since. A number of factors led to me picking up the addiction.

 - I was the only child/daugher of a very committed and non-repentant smoker. My mother is still to this day exactly that. I got the nerve to

ask her one day when I was eight why she smoked. Her reply was that smoking was something many adults choose to do and enjoy, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. From that day on, I just knew I too would be a smoker one day. That day came on my 12th birthday, when I asked to try it. My very pro-smoking mother was pleased to oblige. The influence was definitely there. By the end of the day, I had my own open pack, lighter, and ashtray on my desk in my bedroom. And anytime I left the house, my cigarettes and ashtray were always with me. Once I started, it felt so adult! It was my first adult decision. To be followed with coffee, birth control, intercourse, heels, choice of study in college, career choice, marriage, etc.

- It was 1987; smoking was still extremely common back then. The possible health risks were by then fully realized, but not acknowledged. Smoking prohibitions had not yet kicked in. My mother enjoyed taking me out to dinner once a week, where I could get confident smoking in public.

Once I started back to school, where the ability to smoke was limited, I quickly learned what a nuisance being an addicted smoker could be. But it made no difference. I used the sentence, “I want a cigarette”, less and less, and “I need a cigarette” more and more. The boost in my addiction would be reflected a bit when I switched to 100’s a year later when I was 13, and two years later, when I switched to 120’s. At my current pack a day, I’m hitting my lungs, and the rest of my body, with cigarette smoke anywhere between 240 and 300 times a day. By the time I was 20, I realized that smoking is a sin. But I had been smoking already for eight years, so not only was the addiction well established, but it was something I downright enjoyed. Plus I appreciated the weight management and stress management benefits. Quitting was simply not an option for me. Today, at 47, quitting is still not an option. I try to limit my smoking, and live an otherwise healthy lifestyle. I figure, between cigarettes, lighters, and filters for the air purifier in my house, my addiction costs me at least $4,000 a year -- money I could spend elsewhere. Not to mention the occasional ruined blouse from a falling cherry, because I didn't deash soon enough. And the 16 hours I'm awake every day, I devout a cumulative four-plus hours a day to smoking, time I could be doing something else. Early last year, I took a part-time job at the smoke shop where I've been buying cigarettes for many years. Which soon turned into full-time. Not som much because I needed the money. But because I enjoy being around other smokers. I enjoyed being in an environment where tolerance for smoke breaks was there, and I enjoy giving occasional advice to other smokers about brands and styles.

Even though the Bible does not speak specifically of smoking, it does bring out principles that we can apply. And because there’s so much indisputable scientific information available about the extreme danger of smoking, it is understandable that smoking is a very risky addiction. And because the secondhand smoke that non-smoking children, partners, coworkers, and friends are forced to endure, no one can argue that it is a very selfish personal habit. I have asked myself what I would choose if I only had the options of either smoking, or being with God (church attendance, bible study, prayer and worship). I would like to think that I would choose God but the power of this addiction makes me unsure. Closer to home, when my non-smoking husband and I first met, my smoking was an obstacle for us. Ultimately, I made it clear, if I had to choose between Him and cigarettes, the cigarettes would win every time. Again, how selfish of me! But true.

So, what does the Bible say indirectly about smoking? A few Bible verses follow. Note: All verses below are from the King James Version, which I consider to be the only true English language Bible.

- Exodus 20:3. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Smoking is a top priority in my life. It controls my thoughts and actions. I would do whatever I needed to do in order to be able to smoke. I have bought cigarettes on credit, even though I didn't have the money or the money was needed elsewhere. I'm really ashamed to admit that, but it's the truth. I would most likely purchase cigarettes instead of tithing or giving back to God if it came down to that.

- Exodus 20:17. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.” Smoking breaks the Tenth Commandment. People smoke to satisfy the self. Smoking is a desire, a thirst for self-gratification. It is lust! We must be concerned just as much with what goes on in our minds as with our actions.

- Matthew 22:39. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Smoking around others does not show love. Those who are routinely subjected to secondhand smoke are at higher risk of some of the same diseases that smokers often suffer from.

- Acts 17:24-25. “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Since life is a gift from God, we should not do anything that would shorten our life, such as smoking. Smoking is one of the main causes of preventable death worldwide.

- Romans 6:16. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” When an individual’s thinking and actions are dominated by a craving for tobacco, he soon becomes a slave to tobacco, plain and simple. However, God wants us to be free, not only from practices that harm our body, but also from those that corrupt our spirit, that is, our dominant mental inclination. Can you really fully obey God if you are enslaved by tobacco addiction?

- Romans 12:1-2. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” I am not offering my body as a sacrifice to God. I am offering my body instead to this addiction. I know that what I am doing to my body is not pleasing to God. The popular phrase "What would Jesus do?" has sort of become cliché but I know that Jesus would not have smoked.

- 1 Corinthians 6:12. "All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." This is a hard verse because it means not only is it a sin to voluntarily start a habit that is addictive, it is a sin to continue under the influence of an addictive substance. Addiction is measured by several characteristics, including the severity of withdrawal symptoms, inducement to continue use, the need for more to reach the same effect, difficulty in quitting, and the degree of intoxication. Although studies vary -- heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, alcohol, and caffeine often fighting for the #2 position, the most addictive drug is nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco. And nicotine is not the only addictive chemical in cigarettes. There are numerous other additives, most of which only serve to reinforce the addiction further.

- 1 Corinthians 6:19-20. "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? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." I am certainly not treating my body as a temple by polluting it daily with a substance that is hurting it. There are no physical benefits to smoking. I am destroying my temple one puff at a time.

- 1 Corinthians 10:14. "Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry." People do not start smoking because they want to get sick and waste a lot of money and smell bad. Most smokers started smoking in their teens. And most started because of peer pressure -- they valued the opinion of their friends more than they valued biblical principles. They also may have sought the image of being rebellious and cool more than they sought finding their identity in Christ. The opinion of the world is a powerful idol, but we are exhorted to flee from it.

- 1 Corinthians 10:24. "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." The American Cancer Society estimates that, in the United States, 50,000 people die from secondhand smoke-induced ailments each year. Up to 300,000 children get lung infections (like pneumonia or bronchitis), and up to 1 million develop asthma because of secondhand smoke. These are victims that are close to the smoker, whom the smoker presumably cares for the most. We are called to love each other. But smoking, like many other sins, hurts those around us.

- 1 Corinthians 10:31. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” We can see from this verse we are not to harm our body by defiling it with tobacco and other things that are harmful to the body, but we should also be careful we eat and drink the right foods and we do not eat or drink too much, and whatever we eat or drink should be done to the glory of God. If we are trying to take good care of our physical bodies for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the work of Christ, and for the sake of our influence on others as we try to win them to Christ, we are then eating and drinking and sleeping and exercising and taking care of our bodies for the glory of Christ.

- 2 Corinthians 7:1. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Smoking is unnatural and incompatible with being holy. This is because tobacco users intentionally consume toxins that seriously damage their body.

- 1 Thessalonians 5:22. "Abstain from all appearance of evil." I'm not avoiding this evil. I am participating and indulging in it. Evil is defined as anything that is not of God. Addiction and abuse of my self is definitely not from God. There are several other verses in the Bible that talk about smoking although none which call it by name. Smoking is a sin; I know it is but that knowledge does absolutely nothing to force me to stop.