Be careful when you drink your vinegar.
As vinegar to the teeth and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who employ and send him. – Proverbs 10:26, Amplified Bible (AMP)
If you’ve ever been around a campfire or a grill, you know what it is like to get smoke in your eyes. As soon as the smoke hits, your eyes start to burn, and all you can think about doing is running away. The symptom of burning eyes is an obvious evidence of the damage smoke can do, but much less obvious is the fact that long-term exposure to even low levels of smoke can contribute to many eye-related health problems, such as*:
- Cataracts: Clouding of the eye’s lens that makes it hard for you to see.
- Age-related macular degeneration: Damage to a small spot near the center of the retina, the part of the eye needed for central vision, which causes blurriness, distortions, or blind spots in central vision.
- Dry eye: Reduction in tear production that can cause burning, stinging, blurred vision, and eye fatigue.
- Conjunctivitis (pinkeye): A swelling (inflammation) or infection of the membrane lining the eyelids (conjunctiva).
- Vascular Disease: Hardening of the arteries that can contribute to or worsen vascular disease of the eyes. Artery and vein occlusion and optic nerve damage could cause significant vision loss or blindness.
Contrary to smoke, vinegar – particularly apple cider vinegar – can have several positive effects on health. But intertwined with the benefits of vinegar are several dangers, not the least of which is the destruction of tooth enamel. Vinegar is very acidic, and if it comes into pro-longed contact with tooth enamel, it can eat away at it. As www.sharecare.com reports:
Vinegar is in a variety of foods, including salad dressings, pickles, and other sauces. But this flavorful ingredient can also trigger tooth decay: In one recent study, teens who ate vinegar-heavy foods had a 30 to 85% increased risk of enamel erosion.
Enamel protects your teeth from painful temperatures, chemicals, and damage that could be done from chewing, biting, crunching, and grinding, and once it is damaged, you’ll know it!
Like smoke to the eyes and vinegar to the teeth, the sluggard does great damage to those who attempt to rely on him. Due to his laziness, those who trust him fall short of the goals they strive for, and falling short usually results in losses, both great and small.
SO many people justify their sin by claiming that their sin “only affects them.” That is SO not true! No sin – slothfulness included – affects only one person. If you are a sluggard, you can count on the fact that you will suffer the consequences of your inaction, and so will many, many others.
Don’t be lazy about your laziness. Call on God to replace your sluggardly tendencies with thoughts and actions of diligence. If you call on Him sincerely to do so, He will do so, and both you and those who rely on you will reap the benefits.
* All of these eye-related health issues can occur without long-term exposure to even low levels of smoke, but constant smoke exposure – both for smokers and for those exposed to second-hand smoke – has been tied to these issues as well.
Sources of smoke (eye) research:
Sources of vinegar (tooth) research:
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