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14 June 2012| last updated at 11:24PM

Temptations



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Temptation is the desire to do something we know isn’t right. And no matter how strong our self-control is, we all have to face it at some point or another. It’s just a matter of how strong the temptation is.

It would be so much easier if everything was black and white—if it were easy to distinguish between right and wrong, so you could just make the obvious choice. The problem is that this is not the case. Bad things are often wrapped up in shiny disguises, promising to lead us to happiness. It may deliver on that promise for a short while, but only until the mask is stripped away, revealing the false promise for what it truly is.

One reason many teens fall into temptation is because of peer pressure. One example of this is smoking. Many teens take up this bad habit because other people their age are smoking, and they think it will make them look cool. However, just because your friends are doing something doesn’t necessarily make it right. And you don’t have to follow their example, especially if you know they’re doing something wrong.

Often, something will tell us when a situation is not right. It’s called our gut feeling. We know it’s trying to tell us something when we get a bad feeling as if something is gnawing at our conscience. It then becomes our choice to listen to it and back out of the situation we’re in.

That said, not all temptations are bad. I’m pretty tempted to eat a couple of chocolate chip cookies right now, and that isn’t a terrible thing. Stuff like that is okay every now and then, and it’s important to know the difference between what is okay and what is not.

There is no guide that tells us how to avoid temptation, and even the best of us may fall into its greedy grasp. All we can do is try our best to resist and have strong convictions for what is right and wrong since these will help us to make good decisions.

By Alicia Loh, 15
www.alicialoh.com

 

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