With a Little Help from My Friends

At Whit’s End, Connie once again tries to persuade Jason to reveal the Whittaker family’s secret recipe for raspberry ripple ice cream. Their teasing is interrupted when Connie’s mother, June, arrives to celebrate a promotion at work with a free sundae Connie has promised her. The promotion includes a raise, and Connie expects June to buy a new car and give her the old one.

Sam enters feeling guilty about a choice he made after school. Courtney Vincent and a group of children had invited him to help clean trash from Miller’s Ravine. Sam knew his parents required him to come home first, but everyone pressed him to join such a worthwhile project. He agreed to stay only a few minutes, enjoyed the work, and lost track of more than an hour. When he arrived home, his parents were at the mall and never knew he had been late. Instead of confessing, Sam thanked God for helping him escape punishment.

Connie admits that she also surrendered to pressure. While shopping with Blair Worthington and Carla Austin, she saw Larry Melwood approaching. Blair and Carla hid because they considered his clothes and taped glasses embarrassing, then pushed Connie to call him a geek. Connie resisted at first but finally joined their ridicule with growing enthusiasm - without realizing Larry stood behind her. He heard every word and fled before she could apologize.

June’s experience occurred at her first executive meeting after the promotion. Company president Mr. Peterman proposed hiring outside manufacturers to save money. June believed this would sacrifice quality control and cost more in the long run, but executive Harry Waters warned her that opposing the president’s favorite project could damage her career. When Mr. Peterman asked for her opinion, June ignored her judgment and supported the plan.

Jason observes that pressure from other people affects adults as well as children. Since Sam, Connie, and June have confessed their failures, the group can also help carry one another’s burdens. They decide to encourage one another toward better choices and pray together. Jason recalls his father’s advice: “You plus Jesus are always a majority.” Even when an entire crowd urges someone toward wrong, no believer stands alone.

The next week, Courtney and her friends invite Sam to leave campus during lunch for burgers. They claim everyone does it and the school never enforces the rule. Hungry and facing a soggy sandwich, Sam is strongly tempted. He remembers that Christ stands with him, refuses to leave, and urges the others to stay too. They go without him and are caught by the principal. Sam has also confessed his earlier disobedience to his parents; they restrict him for the rest of the week but praise his honesty.

Connie arranges to meet Larry at a school water fountain. Blair and Carla arrive at the same moment and begin mocking both of them, but Connie refuses to retreat. She apologizes to Larry in front of her friends, and he forgives her. Connie then invites him to join them at the mall. Carla refuses to go with Larry and demands that Blair choose sides. Blair leaves with Carla, and neither girl speaks to Connie afterward. Connie loses two companions but gains a new friend and the satisfaction of no longer following their cruelty.

June returns to Mr. Peterman and admits that she lied about supporting his plan. She explains the dangers to quality and offers streamlining the company’s own manufacturing as a wiser alternative. Mr. Peterman says she has spunk, then adds, “I hate spunk.” Harry urges her to soften her objection, but June refuses. If the promotion requires her to support wasteful decisions against her conscience, she would rather have her former position back.

June’s stand apparently costs her the promotion and raise, so Connie will have to keep driving her old car. Yet June is at peace because she has acted honestly. Sam, Connie, and June have each discovered that resisting a crowd may bring punishment, lost friendships, or lost opportunities, but their faith and mutual encouragement help them accept the cost.

The three immediately put positive pressure to a more playful use, surrounding Jason and demanding the raspberry ripple recipe. Jason protests as they insist that sharing it is vital to the success of Whit’s End, but the closely guarded Whittaker secret remains in his hands.