Reach out…
Something has been heavy on my heart the past few weeks.
College kids.
I have had many conversations with parents of kids in college recently and I see a similar theme.
A lot of our college kids are overwhelmed. They are struggling. Fighting tooth and nail to stay afloat.
When my oldest started college in 2019, I never dreamed the pressures that would soon follow.
As Christian families, we raise our kids in an environment that is often counter cultural.
However, when they go off to college, they are faced with a huge wave of cultural norms. Much drinking, partying, hooking up with the opposite sex, casual—super casual relationships with no strings attached.
It can be a shock to their systems.
They go back to their dorms, apartments, and try to process all of this new.
Along with the workload that college courses bring, the sheer weight of this new freedom and new setting can crush even the most disciplined and ambitious kid.
My heart has been burdened for months over the stories I have heard from other parents regarding their college kids. Their mental health and physical health are at great risk.
Depression, anxiety, weight loss, weight gain…all symptoms of this mounting pressure on our kids.
If you know a college student, a niece, nephew, family friend, neighbor, or even your own child…
I have some thoughts on how we can help.
Reach out to them. And often.
Even just a phone call or text.
Send them a letter or a care package.
Venmo or cash app them a little money for a treat.
Send them encouraging scriptures.
Ask, and ask often how you can pray for them.
Meet them for lunch on campus or off campus if you live nearby.
Take them to dinner.
Small gestures can make a big difference in their lives.
Many students lose their way during those years. They are surrounded with counter cultural advice and life styles and their foundation of Truth can get severely rocked.
Be a safe place for them. Be a little sunshine in the murkiness of their days.
Just planting some small seeds will make a big difference.
Pray for them, and often.
Check on them, and often.
My son’s grandmother makes him lasagna every month. She wraps it up in freezer wrap and when he is ready for a homecooked meal, he heats it up and enjoys a little taste of home.
Every month she does this!
It won’t take much effort on our part to bring some JOY, some HOPE, some PEACE, some COMFORT to our college kids.
finding some kids to love on,
jill
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." 1 Thessalonians 5:11
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25
"Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2
