Raising teenagers is not a job for wimps.  No book can prepare you for the ordeal—you just have to live through it.  While teenagers can be extremely thoughtful and caring, they can also be willful and rebellious.  Well-behaved teenagers are extremely impressive, but a teenager on a rampage can be difficult to handle.

One thing that most teenagers have in common is that they are often easy to influence, especially by their peers.  It is difficult to have a peaceful home when you have a teenager who has come under the influence of bad company.

As parents and grandparents, we should teach our young how to be very careful about the friends they choose.  Why?  Because the friends that we have often influence us, and this is especially true with the young.  

The friends of young people often have a greater impact on them than anyone else.  Those going through the struggles of youth tend to listen more carefully to their friends and be more open-minded toward the advice of their peers than they do others, even family.  This is not a new development.  Young people have always had the propensity to be influenced by other young people.  The story of Rehoboam is a tragic example of this.  He listened to his young friends, rather than to the wise counsel of older men, and it led to the dividing of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:1-19).     

Proverbs 13:20 (ESV)
²⁰  Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.

1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV)
³³  Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”

We all want to believe that we have the strength and mental acuity not to be susceptible to persuasion, but that is just an illusion.  I do not care how resolute you are regarding doing the right thing, if you surround yourself with corrupt friends, you will probably end up doing corrupt things.

Illustration:
A Few years ago, psychologist Ruth W. Berenda and her associates carried out an interesting experiment with teenagers designed to show how a person can be influenced by others. The plan was simple. They brought groups of ten adolescents into a room for a test. Subsequently, each group of ten was instructed to raise their hands when the teacher pointed to the longest line on three separate charts. What one person in the group did not know was that nine of the others in the room had been instructed ahead of time to vote for the second-longest line.

The desire of the psychologists was to determine how one person reacted when completely surrounded by a large number of people who obviously stood against what was right.

The experiment began with nine teenagers voting for the wrong line. The stooge would typically glance around, frown in confusion, and slip his hand up with the group. The instructions were repeated and the next card was raised. Time after time, the self-conscious stooge would sit there saying a short line is longer than a long line, simply because he lacked the courage to challenge the group.  This is what is called peer pressure. This remarkable conformity occurred in about seventy-five percent of the cases, and was true of small children and high-school students as well (The Tale Of The Tardy Oxcart, Charles R. Swindoll, Word, p. 434).

The wrong crowd can turn a well-behaved teenager into a different person, leading to disruption in the home.  Let’s instill the words of Moses in the minds of our young people — “You shall not follow a crowd to do evil…” (Exodus 23:2).

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.