A Christian's Survival guide on any College Campus

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Four areas of emotional problems common to college students are prominent. The most important involves a conflict of values. Emotional problems can overcome a person who has been reared in one value system and all of a sudden is thrown into a completely different value system.

A high school graduate who was reared in a sound Christian environment enrolled in a large state university. Drinking, drugs, promiscuous sex and lewd dress were not only tolerated, they were encouraged. His whole value system was under attack. Under such circumstances a person may begin to doubt the validity of his original set of values. Questions arise such as, Can I justify the morals I was reared with? Who am I? Where am I going? If I need help, where will I get it? Does God want me? Does God know me? Where does God want me? How does God know I exist? What do I really believe? Suddenly his reasons for existence are not as clear as they used to be.

A second source of emotional problems is fear. Fear of failure academically. Fear of rejection by his peers, or of not finding satisfying friendships. Fear may arise from the immense size of the campus, or from the mass of fellow students who live on the campus. Anxiety also comes from the drastic changes one must make almost overnight. Living in a dormitory with so many others. Varying styles of clothes, various lingos and cliques he cannot break into. The vibrations just don't seem right! The new and unknown give rise to legitimate anxiety.

Emotional problems also arise from isolation or loneliness. Even the more mature get homesick for parents and familiar surroundings or a girl or boy friend left behind. Then, too, the campus may seem very impersonal. "No one really seems to care", you might hear a college student say, "I'm just another IBM number".

Another emotional problem is hard to detect because those who have it hardly know it. It is the problem of not having any problems. Some are so anxious to get away from the limits imposed at home, so desirous to do their thing, they abandon their previous system of values. The prodigal son took the money he had coming from his father and left home, thinking he was free. Actually, he was just entering bondage. He thought that he had the solution to the problem of life, when he had not yet heard the question (Luke 15:11-32). This kind of attitude usually stems from a colossal case of selfishness, not yet discovered.

The core solution to anxieties lies in a strong faith that "God is my father". With this assurance no changes in environment or culture will cause us to falter for "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, or anything else in all creation shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38,39).

The Apostle Paul had faced many crises: affliction, hardship, calamities, beatings, imprisonment's, labors and hunger. The qualities that enabled him to overcome those crises he listed as purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, the power of God and righteousness (II Corinthians 6:4-10). You have access to the same endurance through Christ.

The following are four suggestions that will help prevent college imposed anxieties:

  1. Prioritize your life. Get your priorities in line. We never get done all that we would like. Decide on the most important thing. People who fail in college, or in life, are usually busy people, but busy doing the less important things. Decide what you must get done today, write it down if it helps, then your priorities and work from the top of that list. Never include on a day's list anything that is not reasonable and attainable in one day.
  2. Keep a daily quiet time with God. This is the only way to keep your life prioritized and your Christian identity integrated. Daily refresh your soul with God's words. Communicate with him daily in prayer. Turn your life over to him completely.
  3. Resolve to discipline yourself. If you cannot discipline yourself, you are a poor risk for a college degree. Do you habitually start things and never finish them? Have you been planning to read a good book, or start a quiet time with God but never gotten around to it? Are you habitually late with required work? Do you waste time or money and then wonder what happened to it? No one is going to force you to get your life in better order - not even God.
  4. Stay in touch with God's people. God's kingdom is a family, an organism, a fellowship. We need each other. Don't isolate yourself from the body of Christ, stay in touch with the church, place membership, draw strength from regular worship. Stay in touch with your parents, also. You will need their help and advice the rest of your life.

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