Dear Pastor,

I am a 17-year-old girl and I love to read your column and listen to your show. Everybody in my house reads your column and comments on it. I have learnt a lot from your column and your show.

Pastor, I am doing well in high school. I have three sisters. Two of them are older than I am and have children. My younger sister is also in high school. My father left us a long time ago. He doesn't care about us. My older sisters do odd jobs here and there. They didn't stay in school. Their boyfriends help them.

I have a boyfriend who is 22. My mother begged me not to get pregnant. She doesn't want me to go anywhere with my boyfriend although I am 18.

I am planning to run away with my boyfriend. He has a good job and if he didn't give me money I would go to school hungry.

My mother's house is too crowded. My boyfriend doesn't have children. My boyfriend told me that if I come to live with him, he would help me to further my education. When I am 18 my mother cannot stop me from living with my boyfriend.

I don't want to lose my boyfriend. Every time I want to see him I have to put on my school uniform and pretend that I am going to school and then go to his house when he gets his day off.

Please do not say that I am bad. My mother told me that she suspects that I am sexually active but I told her that because she got pregnant when she was 16 doesn't mean I will follow in her footsteps.

She told me that if I say that to her again she will knock me down. I am not a child. I am a big woman now.

E.W.

Dear E.W.,

Try your best to be respectful to your mother. Remember that although she became a mother at an early age, it is not right for you to taunt her about it. Even your sisters have not done well. They should have at least tried to get an education before becoming mothers.

Now, concerning your plan to leave the house and to go and live with your boyfriend, I would suggest that you think again. Perish the thought. Everything is looking rosy and dandy now while you are in school and stealing away to spend time with your boyfriend, but going to live with him will be different.

He is going to hold you responsible for everything. You are going to have to wash and clean and keep his house and have sex with him. He might even get you pregnant, so I repeat, perish the thought of leaving home. Try your best to get an education.

I am trying to tell you to become an ambitious girl. Right now, you are not giving the impression that you are ambitious.

Pastor