But...What will they say?

Brazilian football player RIVALDO was once awarded the Golden Ball, that is to say, the World's Best Football Player.

When he was very young and was starting to play, they used to call him "wooden leg" because they said that even a one-legged man could play better than him.

When in the street, they used to make fun of him and he was mocked when he played in his first teams in Brazil. He did not mind, and kept playing despite being laughed at.

You can be the greatest in the world at your sport, but if you are afraid of being ridiculed, you are lost. The fear of people whistling and booing is a fear that has made people losers throughout history.

We are afraid of being different, afraid of what others might say and afraid of being ridiculed...We don't know how to be ourselves!

This is one of the greatest dangers to young Christians: peer pressure can make our beliefs disappear, even though they may be very important to us.

We don't like to have others think of us as lame or old fashioned, and because of that we sometimes do very stupid things.

When we are with our friends, we may be afraid that they will discover that we believe in God, and we stay silent, stop praying, and go to places where we should never go.

Because of this, we end up doing things that we know will hurt us and those around us. All this just because we fear what others might say. We allow our peers to decide our actions, set conditions, and think for us.

Peer pressure was relevant in the Holocaust. The Inquisition during the Middle Ages began when one group of people decided to begin it and kill millions of people. Another group has decided to approve abortion and kill millions of innocent babies.

One day a group of people shouted, in the face of the most marvellous being that ever existed, CRUCIFY HIM!

We too have fallen under peer pressure on many occasions, and we haven't had the courage to scream: "IT'S NOT LIKE THAT"!

All of this is because we have not learned how to conquer our fear of "what will they say?" How foolish we are!

God didn't make us cowards, He gave us power.  We don't have to follow the crowd, because we are different! No one can tell us what to think. God gave us the freedom to know and understand right from wrong.

Don't suffer because of what other people say. There is nothing in this world more worthy than the gospel of Christ. It is the Spirit of God that gives us the power to be different.

The others are wrong, God isn’t.