Everybody's doing it???

At high school youth group last night we had a discussion about alcohol and drugs. I posed the question, "what percentage of kids at West Ottawa High School drink alcohol?" Some answers were: "50%, 70%, and 90%." It seemed a bit high, I thought. I asked if they really thought that only 4 out of 40 kids at our youth group didn't drink. Then they realized that their perception was probably a little off. I remembered a survey that was done at Hope College a few years ago. It was about the perception of alcohol use. It asked students what they thought the percentage of Hope students drink regularly. Then it asked each person how often they do drink. The survey showed that students thought that 80% of all Hope students drink regularly. In actuality, only 30% of students drank on a monthly basis and even fewer (10%) drank once or more per week. I found this interesting, but the more I thought about it, it made a lot of sense.

Our culture, media, churches, and other sources of influence make it seem like drinking is such a big issue, that everyone is doing it. We teach young kids that they need to be ready for high school and college because they are going to have to constantly say no to drinking and drugs because everyone is doing it. It makes you feel like you are in the minority if you don't drink. Isn't that what Satan wants us to think? Think that we are on the outside looking in. Think that we are weird for not giving in. I think that we need to share the message to young people that in reality more people than not chose to not drink. It is perfectly normal to not drink before 21 or to not do drugs, or to not have sex before marriage. It's the popular choice to be responsible and disciplined with your actions. It may not seem like it because the majority of the attention in the news goes to negative stories about youth or young adults. As a society, we have labeled the adolescent years as years of irresponsibility and drunkenness. We need more stories about good things kids are doing because that is the popular choice by teens. As the church we need more stories about teens serving others, raising money for community projects, and going on mission trips. We need to raise kids up and affirm them for making good choices, so that they don't feel like they are in the minority.