Our kids may know what is right and try with all their effort to do what is right, yet still find themselves giving in to the temptation to fit in and belong. The apostle Paul admitted his personal struggle with these sinful inclinations: “My own behavior baffles me. For I find myself doing what I really loathe but not doing what I really want to do…I often find that I have the will to do good, but not the power…It is an agonizing situation, and who on earth can set me free from the prison of this mortal body?” (Rom. 7:15, 18, 24, Phillips).
No doubt Paul would include in this struggle the moral dilemma between deciding to do what everyone else is doing and deciding to do what God says is good, true, right and honorable.
In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus describes the spiritual struggle of choosing who or what we will follow in life. He calls us to make the right choice as we stand at a fork in the road. On one side sits a wide gate that opens onto a broad road. Those who look through the gate will see the path ahead is wide and well-worn from the number of people who have travelled before us. In fact, many can be seen walking that way, but this path leads to death.
On the other side is a narrow gate that opens onto a small trail. Maybe we see nobody going down that path, but Jesus commands His listeners to take this latter path. Although very few travel it, He says it is the path leading to life.
Though Jesus’ words were intended to communicate truths about eternal life, eternal death, and what it means to follow Him, they also say something about the battle with negative peer pressure. In a sense, our kids find themselves standing at a similar fork in the road. Some of them stand there several times a day, facing the dilemma of choosing to walk the way of what is right or traveling in the same direction everyone else is going. It is the dilemma between standing alone as a follower of Christ and going with the flow.
While we need to recognize that our kids will make many mistakes and poor choices—and they will!—we simultaneously must point them in the direction of Paul’s answer to our tendency to give in to our sinful nature. Paul ends the description of his personal struggle with sin on a victorious note. “I thank God there is a way out through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:25, Phillips).
This fall, take the time to address the reality and dynamics of peer pressure with your youth group. Teach them the truth of these words from Proverb 13:20: “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.”
