I found the most helpful thing for myself, when I joined the church as a teenager, was to try to ask, “In the eternal scheme of things, will I be glad I did this?” A lot of things that are fun now won’t be important eternally. Eternity lasts longer than mortality, and I realized I’d better work on making that part of my life really great.

A study was just released showing that thirteen-year-olds who are very popular are not popular by the time they are in their early twenties. They are more likely to have drug and alcohol problems and they have more trouble getting along with their peers. The researchers suggested that this was because they got their popularity by depending on things that weren’t important in the long run and those things didn’t impress older peers. They were so used to making friends by being shocking and immoral, though, that they couldn’t seem to stop, or maybe didn’t know any other way to make friends and get attention, so they just kept trying more and more things–and it doesn’t work among young adults. So it’s better to work on having friends who like you as you are–moral and happy–and becoming someone who will be great always, not just right now.

Happy homeschooling!