Article October 25, 1993 Issue

Peer pressure?

Being faithful to the one God and to our true nature is the only route to lasting happiness.

Beverly Bemis Hawks DeWindt

Peer pressure is something young people who want to be popular have to deal with on a daily basis. I found myself considering this after a friend related his experience to me. In a letter he wrote, he said, "The rewards for my perseverance through this period of persecution—peer pressure—and 'hell' are innumerable."

He went on to tell me: "It wasn't long after moving out of my parents' home that I found myself involved in a fast-paced life. Under peer pressure over the next couple of years, I found myself drinking alcoholic beverages, becoming hopelessly enslaved by cigarettes, marijuana, and then going on to cocaine and everything else that went with that lifestyle. Through a very subtle and gradual pattern of self-deceptive thought processes, I justified each step of my behavior. ... But I had little self-respect left. Though I couldn't find much to like about myself, I couldn't find the motivation to change.

"But then ... I happened across an old copy of The Christian Science Journal. As I leafed through it, sentences and phrases jumped out at me, but at that time nothing seemed to mean much. I read for a while and then had a restful sleep.

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