Overcoming Loneliness in College a 9-Day Devotional by Cantice Greene and Joshua Greeneಮಾದರಿ

Overcome Loneliness with Family

Cantice says…

In college, I combatted loneliness with family. Contrary to what some believe, going to college doesn’t mean you need to ditch your family ties. Adulting does require independence in some things, but not others. For example, it’s never good to face challenging or heavy things alone (Remember Numbers 11:17?):

"Then I will come down and talk with you there. I will take the Spirit that is upon you and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone."

God doesn’t want you to bear the burden of the unfamiliarity of college alone.

I went to college nearly two thousand miles away from home. Thankfully, my mother had the foresight to find a distant adult cousin, contact him, and let him know I’d be going to school in his city. In my first week of school, he visited me on campus and told me I was always welcome to spend breaks with him and his wife. He told me he wanted to provide support when I needed it.

Maybe you don’t have a family member in the city where you chose to relocate to go to college. The next best thing to family is friends. Another thing my mom had the foresight to do was contact a former church member who had relocated to the city my college was in. When we flew to Atlanta for my college visit, that family met us at the airport, and later, while I stayed on campus with their daughter (who also happened to be enrolling as a freshman), my mom stayed with the couple and caught up on old times. Because of them, I knew I had friends in town who were like family and would be there if I needed to see a familiar face.

Another way to stay connected to family is through a group chat, which can even turn into video chats or a weekly prayer call. If your parents don’t initiate a call, you can be the one to do it. For my husband and me, weekly prayer calls became a way for us to know what our children faced in college and a way for our sons to feel cared for and supported. It reminded our sons that God is in control of everything, and they could take all their troubles, expectations, and new decisions to God in prayer.

Meditate on this: I Peter 5:6-7