peer pressure

St Augustine talks to us in A Year with the Church Fathers today about how God speaks to us through our parents. But he also mentioned how he gave in to peer pressure when he was growing up. Afraid of what his friends would think, he bragged about being even worse than he was.

But peer pressure can work good, too. It just means you have to be the bigger person. It's not easy being the bigger person, is it? You have to be confident in who you are. Then you can be the one who thanks people for their service. You can be the one who that people look up to and want to emulate. And you can be the one that pressures others into doing the RIGHT thing, rather than the wrong thing.

How can we get that confidence? How can we become the bigger person? Well, the best way to get there is to ask Him to build you up. Ask Him to make you into the person He created you to be. He will teach you. Most often, He will give you a mentor... someone who is already a "bigger person" and can positively pressure you to become more like them.

Then, once you've become the bigger person, and you've become who He created you to be, you can find someone to mentor. You can pass it along.

God, thanks for teaching us to be good peer pressure.