Friend Pressure

Everyone has friends, right? Everyone has been to a sleepover. Well what is one of the main things that you do? Watch movies! What happens when all your friends want to watch a movie and you are not aloud to watch it? You say, “My parents said I could not watch that movie.” Then your friends say, “They will never know; come on if you can’t watch it we can’t watch it. Don’t you trust us?” Then you are faced with friend pressure – AKA peer pressure.

Now the difference between peer pressure and friend pressure is that normally your peers are the prissy girls or the jocks at school, but when your friends are trying to pressure you to do something, and you feel as if you have to do it, that is friend pressure. So, you can either please your friends and watch the movie, or you can trust your parents and be obedient.

I had an experience similar to that. My friends had told me about this TV show that they thought was really cool. They asked me to watch it some night I said sure, but I kept forgetting to watch it. For two weeks they continued to ask me to watch it and I finally said I would watch it that night. So I watched it. I saw the first three minuets of it and could not take my eyes of the TV. I called my friends the next morning and said, “I watched it, it was awesome.”

So I told my mom about it and she said, “I don’t want you watching that show, I don’t have a good feeling about it.” I asked her why and she said, “I don’t have to tell you why; you just need to obey me” Well, my friend invited me over to their house and the TV show, (that my mom said I could watch) was going to be on that night. Before I went to her house, my mom told me not to watch that TV show and I promised her I would not. So I went to my friend’s house. It was almost time for the TV show (that my mom said I could not watch) to be on. My friend said, “Hey, let’s watch it.” I said, “I can’t, I promised my mom that I would not watch it.” She said, “Come on, she will never know, you have to know what happens.” (This was one of those TV shows that never ends and you always have to watch the next episode to know what happens).

So I started to think about it, and I convinced myself to go ahead and watch it. So we watched it. We could not stop thinking about it, so we continued to talk about it. The next morning when my mom picked me up I got in the car and she said to me, “You watched what I told you not to watch, didn’t you?” This is what was going through my head, how did she find out? I thought she would not find out. I was in a lot of trouble. Well, the next four months I kept watching it, and I made sure that my mom did not find out. I kept watching it until I was addicted to it. One night my mom saw me watching it and I was in major trouble – like no computer no TV for one-week trouble.

I called my friends and I told them how my mom found out. My friends and I were so upset. They said that they would tell me what happens on every episode. I told them, “No, I can’t, I would get in even more trouble.” But, I still liked the show. One night the Lord gave me a dream and after I had that dream I hated that show. I realized that I was wrong to go behind my moms back and disobey her. Now, I am trying to get my friends to stop watching it. The Lord had told me that Anime (a type of cartoon) is like a drug and that when people continually watch and think about it they can’t hear His voice.

Remember, obedience is better than sacrifice. I sacrificed how my mom always trusted me so I would be able to watch something on TV. Now isn’t that stupid? My point is that you should never let your friends convince you to do something you are not supposed to do.

I pray that you will let the Lord help you make the right decisions when it comes to friends and every other part of life.