As we sat there in the office I shared with five other graduate students, I asked him if we could go sit outside and if he would like to pray with me. As we sat outside at a table near the building, I shared with him the writings of the apostle Paul: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (I Corinthians 6:19) and And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (2 Corinthians 6:16). I then asked him if he would go into a church and smoke marijuana or if he would shoot up cocaine in the sanctuary. He looked up, looked me in the eyes, and told me that it would be evil to do that; then I reminded him of the verses we just read. You should have seen the look of shock on his face. It was then you could tell he realized he had done just that when he used drugs. I shared that story to say this – our young people need to be taught this simple and over-looked truth that their bodies are the temple of God!
Another area of college life that tempts even the most level-headed Christian college student is surrendering of personal devotional time to other activities. It doesn’t matter what time of the day a Christian college student chooses for their personal time with the Lord, there is always something that will compete for the exact same time. Whether it is a meeting with an adviser, employment on or off campus, or even a meeting with some extra-curricular group or related activity, if care isn’t taken, it becomes easy to fall out of the habit of spending time with God. As easy is it to fall from the habit, it is extremely hard to get back into it, even if only a couple of days has been missed. I’ve seen too many college students lose their footing because they simply lost the time to commune with the Lord. When this happens, then they don’t have the power to resist the peer pressure, they don’t feel connected to the Lord, and some may even rebel – not for the sake of rebelling but out of fear because in their hearts they feel unforgiven and can’t be understood.
Knowing what to pray for does help
If I had one piece of advice to pass on to the parents and pastor of a college student, it is that prayer accomplishes much. If you have a young person in college right now, take some time each day and ask the Lord to guard them, to give them Christian friends while on campus, and to allow them to see what’s on campus through His eyes. Take the time to call them, to send them a letter, or even visit them on a Saturday afternoon. Take time to pray with them each time you see them. Find a church of like faith in the area where they are attending college and take some time to talk to the pastor. Let him know about your son or daughter, and encourage him to visit them and invite them to attend his church while at college. Simply knowing that there’s a church of like faith nearby has actually encouraged several college students I’ve come across who were struggling with their faith.
There are so many things our young people come across on the college campus that I haven’t even discussed in this entry. I just mentioned what I’ve come to consider the “big three” – sex, drugs and alcohol, and lack of a time for personal devotion. If you have young children at home, now is the time you begin to prepare them for what awaits ahead. If you already have children in college, it’s never too late to become their hero. If you’re a college student, God still loves you and cares for you, let Him have complete lordship over your life and allow Him to fight your battles with you.
