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Peer Pressure Does Not
Just Happen To Children
If you think peer pressure
stopped, when you grew up, think
again.
As
a child, friends of mine found out very quickly, that I was not a
follower and that they could not talk me into anything. I was and
still am my own person. But as a kid, I would never have thought
that peer pressure would be something that I would be dealing with,
as an adult. I mean, it is adults that always preach to
children, to not give into peer pressure.
It simply makes no sense that adults would be some of the worst
culprits of peer pressure. But that is the fact of it. Peer
pressure by adults is very real.
It was a bit to my dismay
when family members were all a buzz, because I chose to never
drink alcohol again. Though I had never been a big drinker and never
had I ever been drunk; as a young adult, I realized that drinking
was not good. That really ticked people off, adult people. Some of
the same adults, who would trash people for being alcoholics, had a
serious problem with me not drinking at all. Then there were things
like, actually watching my own children and having the nerve to
actually raise my children, by home schooling them. It was as if no
one close to me had ever witnessed someone who was willing to
make the raising of her children a top priority. I was a freak and
worthy of being mocked.
There were other things, like
telling the truth about God's word. That really bugged a group of
mothers at a bible study that I attended. They were all trashing
their children, and I spoke up about the bible scripture that puts
the responsibility on us parents. Well, that went over like a
snowball in hell. I was supposed to conform and trash my kids
too.
You remember
those in-home parties, where you are supposed to invite your friends
so that they can be pressured into purchasing things that they do
not need. Three different times in my life, women friends pulled out
all the stops to get me to participate. One woman even cried in her
attempt to get me to go along with it. Another had her daughter talk
to me. And the other lied and said that I said I
would.
Seeing Fireworks
Here
in New York, it is illegal to shoot off fireworks in
neighborhoods. While trying to get people to stop shooting them
off over my home, I'll never forget this one neighbor, telling me to
just go into my home and put headphones on and pretend it was
not happening. This memory sticks out to me because he was a cop,
a sheriff. It's a felony to shoot off fire works in a
neighborhood. And here was this cop joining in with all the
felons and making me out to be the party-pooper.
Hello???
There were ministers who wanted me to go
along with things that were just wrong, like one
who thought a male Sunday school teacher should be able to
mentor my (then) 10-year-old daughter. What for, he would never
say. We left that church. Another minister wanted me to just
sit and watch while teens taught themselves in a Sunday school
class, because they didn't want to hear things from the bible. I was
supposed to go along with how other adults in the church treated the
teens and not care about them either.
Then came along the
right wing activism world. Surely I would find people in the right
wing activism world, who would not pressure me into going along
with and or doing things that I just cannot. Well, one would
think so. But one would be, for the most part, wrong. Even in this
work that I do, where we always hear that we are not to
compromise, there are people who want me to do things that
they do, think as they think, believe as they believe and to be okay
with who and what, they are okay with. And they will pull out all
the stops, nothing is off limits. And
like men who cannot handle rejection, people in this
work can become very irate when they don't get their
way.
So
here's the thing. I am who I am and no one has a right to expect me
to violate my conscience. As Christians we are all working out
our own road that the Lord has us on, not the road that others are
on. And as the bible says, "For it is God which worketh
in [us] both to will and to do of his good pleasure." So to
those people who think that they know what is best for me to do on
the path that God has me on, I say, get out of my face and get out
of God's way. Because it is not anyone but God who works in me to
will and to do of His good pleasure. It is one thing to share things
with me. I share a lot of things. It is quite another to attempt to
tie strings to me, so that you can make me be who you want me to
be.
The Real American
Problem
What is really wrong with America, is
pride. It is pride that makes people behave like they should be
"God" in someone else's life. And it is pride that makes
people on the receiving end of such behavior; go along with
being treated like a puppet; because of wanting to be liked by the
puppeteers of this world. And this is why we have so many people
following after man's will, instead of after God's will. This is why
so many people do not even try. This is why people like myself, tend
to stand alone, alone with Christ, that is.
I am nobody's
puppet. So if you come around my way and think for one minute that
you will get me to do something that I do not want to do or to go
along with something that I do not want to go along with, then just
keep on walking. Seriously, just walk on
by.
Debra J.M.
Smith 02-15-12
www.InformingChristians.com
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