“It’s the big thing right now!” A group of my friends were clustered around a copy of Seventeen magazine, pouring over a long list of rules for becoming popular. I knew many of them were already working through rule number five. Then the subject turned to which scary movie to rent, and how to get a date with the hottest boy in class. Despite their shallow and skewed perspective, it was way too easy to join in. After all, friends stick together, right?
But, we didn’t see eye to eye and before long I had to turn a corner. Truthfully, I felt lonely in my choices to stand apart from the buzz-hopping crowd. Following God meant gutsy decisions to go the opposite way. And that wasn’t easy.
Whether you realize it or not, you are sending a bold message to others by your choices. My friends learned I wouldn’t buckle under their so-called peer pressure. They started leaving me out, not inviting me to that movie, that joyride, that sleepover. Perhaps they thought I was lame. Or they knew I would speak out, and they didn’t want a guilt trip.
There are defining moments in our lives, and this was one for me. I heard these words, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matt. 7:13–14).
The question is raised for us today. Are we up for the fight that comes with walking what Jesus calls “the narrow road?”
It’s probably pretty simple to picture the wide road, because those are the choices that a lot of others at school are making. It takes more guts, though, to walk the narrow road.
I wouldn’t have lasted long on the narrow road if it weren’t for God’s Spirit. He’s the One you can’t see with your eyes, the One who lives inside you and is your source of strength to stand up for what you know is right. Have you needed Him lately? I have.
And, let me tell you, you were made for so much more than following the whims of those around you. God has things in store for you that will blow your mind—but there’s a catch: you gotta choose the narrow road to find them.
So, who is guiding your decisions? Do your more outgoing friends make your choices for you? Girls with a take-charge attitude tend to influence their friends, good or bad. If you’re happy taking a back seat and letting others lead the way, you could be giving into peer pressure without knowing it.
But you also have the opportunity to lead, to fight like a girl, to show your friends—show everyone—what it looks like to walk the narrow road.
Written by Becca Leander Nicholson
