peers

my little brother was telling us stories about one of his friends who would be a little cruel sometimes. when he was done i said to my mom, "the sad thing is, i know exactly how this kid is going to end up in high school if someone doesn't get him to straighten up." my mom said, "well thats why your brother or one of his peers needs to stand up and tell him."

well i didn't think much of that until later on when i realized that that applied to me as well. even though i have no idea how exactly my peers would turn out, it is still my job to help them get back on the right path, so that i don't need to find out what would have been. but this takes a lot of guts. i mean this makes making the right choice for yourself amongst peer pressure look easy. making a decision for yourself based on your beliefs takes courage, but it takes a thousand times more to stand up to others and tell them that what they are doing is wrong. but let us not forget to practice what you preach and remove the beam from your eye before you remove the splinter from your brother's eye or else all your good intentions will be for naught because they will go by what you do, not what you say.
-michael