Peer Pressure.

What’s the big deal about peers? Do they have the influence everyone claims?  Yes.  Here’s why:

1. As children look for models beyond their parents, they land on peers. We want friends.  So we try to convince our peers we are cool.  Thus, we do things to impress our peers—things we would not do otherwise.
2. Second: young people are not born with knowledge. If you have never been to New York, for example, your knowledge of the city is based almost entirely on television.  When you finally go to New York one day, you will be amazed to discover it is not just one long Friends/Seinfeld mashup.  Similarly, children are not born with knowledge of pop culture, fashion, or what is “cool.” Most of your knowledge comes from your peers—even if your peers are idiots.  Seriously. No matter how backwards their families or how ignorant their ideas, your peers will be your TEACHERS on many subjects of fashion, culture, politics, and values. 
3. In college, you are surrounded by peers as a fish is surrounded by water. Even if you know your peers are mostly foolish, selfish, lazy, and immoral, yet because they outnumber everyone else it is easy to think the whole world is just like them—and that doing what they do is NORMAL.

Thus, peers have an influence because 1) you want to be liked, 2) you are inexperienced and peers seem more knowledgeable about… EVERYTHING, and 3) when all you see are foolish peers, the foolish appears normal.

God knows the power of a bad influence. 

“But if you don’t drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land, those you allow to remain will become THORNS IN YOUR EYES and in your sides. They will harass you in the land, and everything I had planned to do to them, I will do to you” Numbers 33:55-56.

THORNS?  In your EYES?  Wow!  And here’s the verse that kept me paying for private school for my children: “Bad company corrupts good morals” 1 Cor. 15:33.

God, protect us from bad influences.  Make us GOOD INFLUENCES.

ΑΩ