How do I creat my own standards?

[MidnightWalker]

thanks for the replys, I think I found a/an/the/possible answer

[Zilch]

Start with Psalm 1 and Psalm 15. Other than that, you have to keep pressing into your relationship with Jesus and reading the Bible, so the more you see the light, the more obvious the darkness will be.

[RedMage]

There comes a time when everybody who's been raised in a particular faith has to start deciding for himself or herself whether that faith is worth hanging onto once the support and expectations of parents or whoever are gone, when you have to stand or fall on your own. Except you don't have to really stand or fall on your own, because God is with you always.

You simply must be looking for that escape, you must be wanting to resist the temptation. Bring these fears to God and ask him to give you the strength you need. As Zilch said, make sure to regularly expose yourself to the things of God and his word instead of passively relying on somebody else to make you or spoon-feed it to you. Don't be ashamed of your feelings of shakiness and doubt. God honors it when we're honest with him about how we feel, however it may be.

And not that you would, but don't get too clever for your own good and decide to sin just so you know what the effects are and can thus be sure these sins are truly bad things. Examples of the destructive consequences of all these sins are available enough if you want to look for them, and in the end, trusting God isn't about a (short-term) cost benefit analysis, and it sometimes comes down to turning away from the choices that actually look easier or more enjoyable for the ones that are difficult.

I'm praying for you.

[Kaligraphic]

If you live by arbitrary standards, you'll just find yourself looking for ways that other people don't measure up. Live by love and wisdom instead. See what is motivated by love and directed by wisdom, and do that.

[MidnightWalker]

There comes a time when everybody who's been raised in a particular faith has to start deciding for himself or herself whether that faith is worth hanging onto once the support and expectations of parents or whoever are gone, when you have to stand or fall on your own. Except you don't have to really stand or fall on your own, because God is with you always.

You simply must be looking for that escape, you must be wanting to resist the temptation. Bring these fears to God and ask him to give you the strength you need. As Zilch said, make sure to regularly expose yourself to the things of God and his word instead of passively relying on somebody else to make you or spoon-feed it to you. Don't be ashamed of your feelings of shakiness and doubt. God honors it when we're honest with him about how we feel, however it may be.

And not that you would, but don't get too clever for your own good and decide to sin just so you know what the effects are and can thus be sure these sins are truly bad things. Examples of the destructive consequences of all these sins are available enough if you want to look for them, and in the end, trusting God isn't about a (short-term) cost benefit analysis, and it sometimes comes down to turning away from the choices that actually look easier or more enjoyable for the ones that are difficult.

I'm praying for you.

No, im not going to go jump off a bridge just because I need the experience to know wether it is good or bad.

[Alice]

Do you feel tempted by these things, Midnightwalker?

If you really understand what they can do to you, maybe that will help you not to be tempted so much.

Someone I know found he was getting cravings for alcohol, which ended when he stopped listening to a heavy-rock radio channel. Maybe it was lyrics in the music, something spiritual, or the commercials. Either way, God guided him and helped him realize he had to let it go.

I hope that if you feel a hunger or temptation in these areas you will pray and ask God to show you why and what you can do to lessen it.

[MidnightWalker]

I am not drawn to them currently because I do not have access, or no one is influencing me about them, I just want to know what to do when my safeguards are gone

[RedMage]

You fall back on God. He's your safeguard. You tell him, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief."

[Photosoph]

Definitely look to the Lord. At the moment I'm in a similar situation; I have a lot of safeguards against those things.

Other people have given good advice. I'm not really sure if I can give a good answer to your question, especially one that hasn't already said. What I will say is that maybe if you see what happens to people by getting into drugs or drink, it could put you off.
By this I don't mean going and trying for yourself and seeing what happens; instead, looking at the lives of others who are affected by drink and/or drugs. Even documentaries on the subject could help.

Even just with smoking, I know how it affected someone. Back in school, I was hanging out with a large group (friends, the friends of those friends, etc). One day, someone pulled out a smoke. Basically, my main friends and I moved away, totally rejecting this decision. But one of my friends, who was a really nice Christian girl, took a smoke. When she came back to us she said it had just been a 'bum-puff' (holding the smoke in your mouth and then breathing out). Not that that made any difference, in my opinion.
From there, I'm not 100% what happened in regards to this friends and smoking: whether it became a problem for her or not. But what I do know is that I can see that from her decision, other areas of her life were affected. Perhaps it was something that had already been there beforehand, but her lack of conviction to say 'no' affected her from them on. Her whole personality changed, and though she was a bright girl, I've heard that she opted for an easier, 'cooler' job rather than pursue what was capable of.

So even if it's not the direct affects of things like cigarettes or drugs themselves, which are bad enough, there are other areas that not saying 'no' to these things may affect.

I hope this helps a little; not sure if it's along the lines of an answer you're looking for, but I thought I'd just share what I know. There are more to these things than the addictions themselves, though those are terrible on their own.