Article February 16, 1987 Issue

Facing the pressures

Being a teen-ager and dealing with peer pressure can be tough. A young man talks about how Christian Science brought stability and happiness to his teen years.

Julio C. Rivas T.

Growing up in one of the largest cities in the United States was not easy. The culture surrounding me from seventh grade up included readily obtainable drugs, rampant premarital sex, and violence. By no means were these problems exclusive to the economic lower class; the middle and upper classes were affected too.

The stabilizing influences in my life amid these surroundings were Christian Science and a loving and close family. Christian Science gave me a clear sense of right and wrong and a radically new way of looking at what surrounded me. It imbued me with a feeling that to be a Christian Scientist was to be different but in a good way. I found that feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and confusion can be healed by prayer. We do not need to believe that these feelings belong to us or that we need to hide them. The Christ, which evidences God's caring and healing touch, can remove these feelings, which are really only false suggestions about our true nature. Turning to God for help in the way Christian Science reveals, we find that Christ Jesus' promise "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"^{Matt. 11:28.} is fulfilled.