When thinking about peer pressure, I usually think of teen peer pressure along with middle and high school. During those years a person’s friends and classmates usually are most important. Also, those are the years people start be more independent and think independently.
Peer pressure comes in two forms, good and bad. It seems that bad peer pressure is the type most people associate with the term ‘peer pressure.’ Examples of bad peer pressure are drinking, smoking, alcohol, drugs and rebellion. All of them are negative. Those are the things parents ‘preach’ against. Thinking back, I know I heard the saying, “You wouldn’t jump off a bridge it so and so did,” a hundred times.
On the other hand, an example of good peer pressure is learning good and acceptable social behaviors from others. Good peer pressure is positive.
I don’t recall any of my peers witnessing to others, wearing a WWJD bracelet, or carrying a bible at school. Yes, I am just as guilty as those who did not witness, even though I am a Christian. Afraid I was of what my peers would think and say about me! I certainly didn’t want to be called ‘Miss Goody Two Shoes.’
Nevertheless, today in my adult class at church, we had a small discussion about the evidence of God in peoples’ lives after he or she is saved. The literature we use, Lifeways “Biblical Truths” (Summer, 2004), mentions Cassie Bernall. She was a victim of the Columbine High School shooting. It was pointed out how she was once enchanted with witchcraft and suicide. However, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior a few years before this shooting. It was very evident that she was a Christian. She wore a WWJD bracelet and carried a bible at school. However, the most powerful witness under peer pressure that I can think of is saying to one’s murderers, “Yes, I believe in Jesus.” Isn’t that similar to what Jesus did when he was crucified on the cross?
