When I was about 13 years of age I learned a lesson on obedience and
resisting others influence that I never forgot. I let others influence
me to disobey my father's command. It was presented to me in a way so
that it seemed that it would be all right, but yet it was a direct
disobedience.

Unexpectedly, my parents were to be gone on Sunday. Early that morning
my father came upstairs to my bedroom, and told me about their going,
and told me to take the three younger children to Sunday school and
church services, and then come home, prepare dinner and stay at home
until they returned in the late afternoon.

After the morning services, some of the young people wanted me to go
home with them for dinner and then in the afternoon they were going to
another town close by, and have young people's meeting. I repeated what
my father said and told them that I couldn't go. One girl especially
began to beg me to go by saying that she was sure my father would not
care. I still refused to go, so she talked to her mother about it. Her
mother told me that she would take care of the three smaller children if
I wanted to go with the young people to the meeting and she was sure my
father would know they were in good care. This over-persuasion was hard
to turn down, so I went home with them for dinner and to the young
people's meeting in the afternoon. I didn't feel very good over it as I
knew what my father's command was and I knew that when he told me to do
something he expected me to do it. Needless to say, when my father heard
about it, I was punished for disobeying him. He also had prayer with me,
instructing me to seek God's forgiveness. The good intentions of others
did not sway him. He told me I should not let others influence me to
disobey him, regardless of what they presented. It grieved him very much
to think that I didn't do as he had told me, and he said that he didn't