Dear Summer Vacationing College Student,
Congrats on making it through another year of college!
Now you get to rest up! Enjoy your break, time away from school, and rest! Not only does summer provide rest, but it can also challenge your faith and obedience to Jesus. During the school year, you have your routine. You wake up, drink your coffee while reading the word, get ready, and go to class. But during the summer, you might not have a schedule, and it becomes easier to forget about spending time with God. Summers can also be spiritually isolating because you might be going home to non Christian family and friends, and you’ll be away from your church and Christian community. All of this can make growing in your walk with God a challenge, but take heart because you can make decisions now that will allow you to continue to grow during the summer.
Why is it important to continue growing in your walk with God during the summer and not just take the months off?
“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:10-11 (NIV)
Joy, not me Joy haha, but the adjective which is a settled state in the mind of contentment, confidence, and hope, can be complete! This means that we can have contentment – we will no longer think something else will satisfy us more than Jesus, confidence – we will no longer doubt God’s love for us, and hope – we will no longer question the point of our sufferings. We will have complete joy when we keep God’s commands and remain in his love. And how can we do that? By continuing to grow in our walk with the Lord, spending time with him, and getting to know him more.
Now that you know why this is so important, here are 3 ways to grow during summer vacation:
Daily time with God in the word. The number one priority in your day and life must be fellowship with God. To get to know someone, you must spend time with them.
- Plan into your day 30-45 minutes or as long as you would like to read the Bible, pray, journal, and worship. Set a practical realistic goal. For example, if you know you only have time for a 20 minute devotional, then don’t plan an hour quiet time. You’ll end up feeling disappointed.
- If you don’t know where to start, look for an inductive Bible study on a book of the Bible or download the YouVersion Bible app. This app will send you a notification each day to read the day’s verses.
Fellowship with believers. It is important to have Christian friends doing life with you. They can encourage you and provide Biblical truth when you need advice. It can be hard if you are going home to a place with no other believers, so you have to be intentional to seek fellowship. Here are some ways to do that.
- Get involved in a church while you’re home, maybe they have a college age summer Bible study.
- Keep in touch with Christian friends from school. Partner up and decide that you will intentionally ask each other through the week how your quiet times are going and how you’re doing.
- Read books by influential Christians. Right now I’m reading a book by a Crulebrity Chad Young called Authenticity.
- Download church podcasts or apps to listen to their sermons. I’m home in Pittsburgh for the summer, so I downloaded my church from Tampa’s app so now I can listen to the sermons without being there. It helps me stay feel connected!
Discipline. Discipline is the ability to order your life around the goals that you determined to accomplish or achieve.
- Set spiritual goals for yourself for the summer.
- What would you like to see God do in your life this summer?
- Make a plan and stick to it. These decisions you make today can impact your summer and your eternity.
I want to encourage you all that you are not alone. I’m right there with you trying to figure out the transition back home for the summer and to make sure I continue growing. If you have any other ideas or found something that has worked for you comment below!
Love, Christian College Gal
For other Dear Friend Series posts click here!
Most of these ideas were pulled from my favorite resource Cru Press Green. Click here for the complete Cru Summer Survival Guide. I hope this post has been encouraging! Be sure to add me on social media and share my blog with your friends! Thanks!
Joy Pedrow 