Peer Pressure

We constantly tell kids not to give in to peer pressure, but guess what? I cave in to peer pressure every week at least once. I don't have a problem with caving on the things we warn kids about. I don't drink, not because I think it is a sin. I just don't drink. I don't smoke because I spent the first 18 years of my life breathing in second hand smoke and going to school every day smelling like an ashtray because my dad smoked. When I finally starting breathing fresh air, I became determined to continue to take care of my lungs. I won't follow someone into breaking the law or doing something immoral. My problem is one of attitude.
We discussed this in my Sunday School class this morning and then the preacher mentioned the same thing in the sermon. I think God is trying to tell me something.
I am very easily swayed when I'm around someone with a negative attitude. I can be in a decent mood when someone I'm around starts talking about how horrible our society is, how much worse kids today are, how much things have changed in a very short time, how teachers are in a no win situation today....and I will join right in. Pretty soon, I'm hating my job, regretting my choice of careers, dreading entering the classroom.
I can go visit someone and be in a perfectly good mood, and then the conversation turns to someone who has done something to make me mad. Usually this person has not hurt me but someone I love. I will join right in to the conversation until, by the time I leave, I'm angry all over again. I'm a fool.
I can get on Facebook and be looking for the funny posts that I love so much concerning life and living. Suddenly, someone posts some statistic or fact that is negative, someone else posts some anti-(fill in the blank) tirade, some political misinformation, whatever, and I am either joining in or arguing in my head with them. I have learned not to type my arguments in. Facebook is supposed to be fun; if it isn't, I'm getting off.
I'm going to make myself a list of Commandments.
I shall not surround yourself with negative people.
I shall not sit at a lunch table with people who want to talk about anything serious.
I shall not enter into an argument on Facebook.
I shall not allow another person to determine my attitude or remind me of the things that I need to forget.
I shall remember that I am a child of God, saved by grace, on my way to heaven.
I shall remember that I have been blessed beyond measure with healthy, happy children. Although we lost Jason from this earthly life, my future with him is secure.
I shall remember that I will spend eternity with the Savior that I worship and the family that I love.
I shall remember that Attitude is the Mind's paintbrush, it can color any situation.
(I didn't write that one myself. It's on a poster that has been in my classroom for several years.) I choose to paint my mind with pretty, positive colors. I'm not going to allow anyone to put those dark, dreary colors into my mind.
Good Lord, I'm almost fifty-six years old. When will I get this stuff right? How many times do I post something like this and wonder why it has taken me so long to realize this? I pride myself in being a life-long learner, but I wish I hadn't taken so long to learn, and relearn, so many life lessons.