Lesson 4: Just say No

Do you remember back in the 70's when media figures were trying to teach young people to “Just Say No”?   Everywhere we turned, schools, shopping centers, Television, we saw or heard the phrase “Just Say No.”  It was an effort to keep kids off .  It was an effort to help kids overcome peer pressure to do things that are wrong or harmful.  I don’t know how successful the effort was.  It was a valiant effort, no doubt.  I know that when I was in school were as available as french-fries at McDonalds.  It seems that the cliché “everybody’s doing it” was not far from wrong.   I am, of course, out of that school environment and have been for ... well I won’t tell you that because then you’ll think I’m old.  Maybe it’s because I am out of that environment that I don’t see it, but it seems to me that the appeal of has lost its edge.  That is a good thing if indeed it is the case. 

Peer pressure is not something new.  Today we talk about it a lot.  In fact, when one goes to youth programs wherein a speaker talks about peer pressure, it seems the kids are almost bored from hearing about it.  Most kids want to believe that they are above peer pressure.  They don’t want to see themselves as not being in control.  That’s one of the great dangers of peer pressure; no one thinks they are susceptible.  The fact remains, however, that everybody is - and not just young people. 

In Proverbs 1:10-19, Solomon guards his son against peer pressure.  He warns his son against the enticement of the sinful to be involved in sinful, even criminal, activity.  When is the last time someone was pressured to do something good or godly?  When we are pressured by our peers, it is almost always to do something that satisfies the flesh in an ungodly manner.  In the scenario given by Solomon the fleshly desire is getting “precious possessions” without having to earn or work for them - by taking them from the unsuspecting.  With and , the pressure from peers is to fulfill an desire in an irresponsible and ungodly way.  Solomon says, “Just say no.”  In verse 10 he says, “Do not consent.”  In verse 15 he says, “Do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path.” 

Solomon tries to reason with his son.  He tells him that, while the promises and dreams of the sinners look wonderful, their end is the way of .  When we are pressured to do a thing we are not told the consequences and often we are so blinded we do not see or recognize them.  Only because the law requires it in America do cigarette companies put warnings on their labels.  In the school yard, however, when a kid is being pressured to have a smoke, no one speaks of emphysema, lung cancer or having to carry around an oxygen tank when you are 60.  “Behold your sin will find you out” is more than just a quaint saying and vainly repeated scripture ... it is a fact!  While one may commit a crime and get away with it - eventually the piper must be paid.  Solomon says, “they lie in wait for their own , they lurk secretly for their own lives” (Proverbs  1:18).

The difficulty is in getting the young person to see that.  One thing is for sure, it won’t happen just by saying it once in the middle of a crisis as you are trying to get your young person not to do a certain thing.  It must be a regular part of their discipline (training) that they are warned about those consequences.  One does not have to look very hard or long to find real life illustrations to show young people the consequences of giving in to peer pressure to do wrong.  AIDS victims, alcoholics and their lifestyles, teenage pregnancies, youth detention centers and the like are in abundance and are the proof of the pudding that “crime (sin) doesn’t pay.” 

Parents, your responsibility is to do just as Solomon did.  Set your child down on a regular basis and tell him/her, “My son [daughter], hear the instruction of your father [mother], ... if sinners entice you, do not consent.”  If you are successful in planting the seed, you will have saved your child from .

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