How To Prepare Your Kids Faith Before They Leave For College, Part 2: Faith-Based Preparation
It’s doubtful parents would send their kids to college without some sort of meal plan, but are parents as diligent in helping set up a spiritual meal plan for their children? Once that dorm key is issued, there will be no more spoon-fed lessons by the youth group. When our kids head to college, it’s time for them to feed themselves, or they could spiritually starve to death.
In our previous blog, we addressed the top four preparations to keep your kids on FIRE for God: faith-based, intellectual, relational, and environmental. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to prepare your kids spiritually for college, specifically through spiritual disciplines.
Developing Good Faith Habits
Helping your child establish the habits of personal Bible study and prayer while they are still living in your home is an important part of encouraging them to remain connected and committed to their local church and their Christian beliefs. (I contend it’s not too late, even if they’ve already gone off to college and even if they have already graduated. If we’re still breathing, it’s not too late.)
If you are at a parenting stage where you can model this for your kids, go for it. If that discipline has not yet been developed, don’t let a guilt trip or excuses stall you into inaction. Why not express your current desire to engage and use it as an incentive for both of you to start? You could even hold one another accountable and/or share what you’re learning.
Need some help? Host a get-together with other college-bound Christian friends to encourage and equip them to dig into this discipline. Call in a trusted Christian mentor to share their personal insights on the importance of reading the Word, committing to prayer time, and using trusted tools and resources. Research shows that maintaining relationships with parents and having other adults they respect invest in their lives helps young adults stay connected to church through and after college.
Ways To Nurture Your Kid’s Faith
Devotionals
Devotionals can serve as an appetizer to prepare the palate for the main course, like a warm-up to a workout. Encourage your child to use a devotional book that quotes Scripture daily. If they never get to the main course, at least they will have had a taste of God’s Word that day.
Although there are many modern-day devotionals that are great, don’t be afraid to introduce your kids to classic devotionals. The writing and theology are rich, and these writers connect your kids to our shared Christian heritage and history. (Consider Oswald Chambers, Charles Spurgeon, and A.W. Tozer to start. Want something from the 21st century? Try Paul David Tripp.)
Bible Study
Talk about a smorgasbord! There are so many approaches to Bible study, it’s often hard to know where to start. Why not ask your child what appeals to them? A historical biblical figure? A book of the Bible? A theme? A word study? Use this list to help if they aren’t sure:
- Basic theology. Studying basic theology can be helpful and grounding for students. An introduction to the orthodox Christian tenets is key to recognizing heresy (anything that denies the teaching of Jesus). (Try Wayne Grudem and Norman Geisler.)
- Attributes of God. Studying the attributes of God can develop your child’s understanding of God, fortifying their trust in Him. Knowing our never-changing God provides a compass in an ever-changing culture. (Try A.W. Tozer, R.C. Sproul, and J.I. Packer. We also recommend a book by Lydia White for parents and kids ages 4-11.
- Fruit of the Spirit. Studying the fruits of the Spirit help develop spiritual maturity in college (and it’s a way to personally measure their growth).
- Specific passages. While still at home, have your child study the passage your pastor preaches from on Sunday morning. Then, when they join a campus ministry and a local church while at college, they can continue the habit.
- Wisdom literature. A chapter a day from Proverbs is easy to digest and gives great insight into both wisdom and warnings. (Help your child keep in mind that these pithy sayings are principles, not promises.)
- Apologetics (we’re kinda partial to this one!). The Apologetics Study Bible has great articles on pertinent faith questions that will come up in college, a worldview chart explaining what other religions believe, and sections called “twisted scripture” about passages commonly misused or misinterpreted. It’s a great reference tool and study Bible. You can sign up for 52 weeks of free apologetics content and use that to spur study. Online videos also offer tough questions. If your church offers a RightNow subscription, use it!
- The ESV Study Bible continues to get high marks both for the translation and the study materials. Download the free app for robust resources and reading plans.
- Consider teaching your child the inductive Bible study method. This discipline will set them on a lifelong trajectory of rich study that they can do on their own without Bible study books.
Go Digital
Since our students are such digital natives, engage them through their thumbs and earbuds. Bible study and prayer apps might be the best way to get them connected, literally.
- YouVersion has access to multiple translations of the Bible at your fingertips. Plus, Bible reading plans can be chosen both by topic as well as by length of time to complete the study. Includes video, audio, and much more. Be discerning about the content.
- Blue Letter Bible has a Bible reading plan in addition to devotionals, dictionaries, lexicons, Bible studies, maps, charts, free online books, and more. Those who want to can really “nerd” out here as they deepen their study time and tools.
- Bible Gateway has a verse of the day upload, a Bible reading plan with a daily reminder alarm, and an audio version of Bible readings, which could be nice to listen to on the way to class or while they are working out.
- The Bible Recap app is an excellent way to read through the Bible in a year with succinct commentary.
Don’t forget: While there are advantages to digital–based content, reading a printed Bible has even more benefits. If your child doesn’t have a Bible of their own, consider getting them one before they leave for college.
Prayer
There’s no better way to learn how to pray than by actually praying. Use an acrostic like ACTS (Adoration/praise, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication) – it’s instructive, biblical, and focused. The ACTS method can help your children develop their relationship and trust in God. Teach your child as they read the Bible to highlight these four aspects of prayer.
Another thing you can try is praying God’s Word — in context, of course. While there are tremendous books and studies on prayer, learning to use your Bible to pray will be rich and requires no other material.
There are apps for prayer as well. YouVersion includes a prayer module with guided prayer prompts, a way to create your own prayer list and track answers, and a tool to set a daily reminder to pray.
Personally, having a prayer partner in college with whom I studied a book on prayer (and who held me accountable to pray daily) changed the trajectory of my prayer life. (We’ll talk more about how to pray for your kids in college in a later blog in this series!) While corporate prayer is extremely important (prayer groups are popping up on college campuses everywhere), personal prayer time lays the foundation.
Model prayer for your kids. We recommend our book, Honest Prayers for Mama Bears, to help you. It’s topical, so it’s easy to find a prayer that fits your particular situation. To help you get started, we’ve created these images that you can download and print. There are two for boys and two for girls. Pick your favorite, print it out, and then put it up to remind you to pray for your kids.
Time
Encourage your child to find the time that is best for them, so they will stick with a plan. Chances are that if they have an 8 a.m. chem lab, they are not going to get up and have quiet time. But if they have a break on campus in the early afternoon, maybe they can find a nice spot to spend 15-20 minutes in the Word and prayer. Be willing to share your own struggles and successes with maintaining a consistent personal study and prayer time.
A Faith They Can Own
So, before that last duffle bag is packed, consider giving your child a special new study Bible, pocket Bible, or leather-bound devotional book with a personal inscription in it. Wrap it up with a new set of earbuds with a note to “plug in daily” to God’s Word. Challenge them to weave Scripture reading and prayer readings into their playlist. And don’t forget the value of Scripture memorization, which requires active mental engagement. (Mama Bear Hillary recommends the BibleMemory app) You can also check out this classic tool from Navigators.
A nourishing daily diet of God’s Word and prayer will go a long way to help our college students resist the temptation to ingest the spiritual junk food offered by some of their peers and professors.
Recommended Resources:
Jesus, You and the Essentials of Christianity by Frank Turek (INSTRUCTOR Study Guide), (STUDENT Study Guide), and (DVD)
How to Interpret Your Bible by Dr. Frank Turek DVD Complete Series, INSTRUCTOR Study Guide, and STUDENT Study Guide
Intellectual Predators: How Professors Prey on Christian Students (DVD) (mp3) (mp4 Download)
Can All Religions Be True? mp3 by Frank Turek
Julie Loos combined her passion for prayer and apologetics in her contributions to three Mama Bear Apologetics books. Her apologetics training came from campus ministry and certificates from Biola University and the Crossexamined Instructors Academy. Julie has been teaching, writing, and speaking on prayer for Moms in Prayer International for more than 23 years. She lives in Missouri with her husband, Todd, has two married sons, two grandchildren, and enjoys working out, Bible study, chocolate, coffee, and deep conversations.
Originally posted at: https://bit.ly/3JoRnic
