Still have teens and tweens in the house?
You might find this parenting series helpful.
1. Pray for your child’s relationships with their roommates and hall-mates.
2. Pray for your child’s relationships with members of the opposite sex.
3. Pray for your child’s friends.
4. Pray for their involvement on campus.
It is really important for students to be involved in campus life either on their hall, through a club, a service group, or some other avenue of connecting with and getting to know others. Pray for discernment for your child as they seek to make these decisions and balance various things going on in their lives. Pray they would be willing to let some opportunities pass, but be bold to take advantage of others.
5. Pray for mentors for your child.
In addition to friends and other students, pray for the leaders on your student’s hall (RAs, etc.). They are upperclassmen students who desire to serve your child and walk alongside them. If your child is in one of these positions, pray for them and their work as these provide excellent opportunities for God to work in and through them. Pray for faculty and staff who interact with your students, and for pastors and other members in the local church where your child attends. Pray that one or two of these people would be equipped by God to connect with your child and speak the truth of Christ into their life regularly.
6. Pray for your child’s church involvement.
If they happen to attend a Christian college, it can be easy for students to think they get what they need in Bible classes, chapel, and hall prayer times. Sleep can feel very urgent on a Sunday morning, so please pray that your child will connect with a local congregation. It can be scary and intimidating at times, but is a great means of grace in their lives.
7. Pray that God’s spirit makes your child’s heart and mind alive to the Scriptures and the gospel.
Being surrounded by people who profess the same thing you do can easily lead to assuming the gospel of Christ in our lives and taking the scriptures for granted. Pray that in chapel, class, church, and personal devotions, the Holy Spirit will awaken your child’s heart and mind to the truths of God’s written word and the work of Jesus, the Living Word.
8. Pray that their identity would be found more and more in Christ.
Students deal with issues such as physical appearance, religious reputation, academic or athletic prowess, good relationships, bad relationships, future goals, past achievements, etc. All of these and countless others are calling to students (and to all of us really), and asking your sons and daughters to place their trust and hope of joy and fulfillment in them. Pray that your child will hear the voice of Christ calling loudly above all the others, and that they will grow in the joy that Paul knew in Philippians 3 of being united with Christ and found in him.
9. Pray that your child would grow in Christ-likeness.
Pray that as they grow in their understanding of what Christ has done for them, they will grow in his likeness, being quick to forgive and slow to anger, considering the interest of others before themselves, and looking for opportunities to serve others and show them the love of Christ.
10. Pray that your child would learn from his or her mistakes.
Part of growing and learning is making mistakes along the way. Pray that these times of frustration, disappointment, and even embarrassment would help them to grow in their understanding of the grace of Christ, mature as the young men and women they are, and would guard them from larger frustration, disappointments, and embarrassments in the future.
And one to grow on ~
Pray that they would know God more.
Following Paul’s prayer for the Colossians–
“May you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” ~ Colossians 1:9b-10.
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Excerpted, with permission, from Kevin McAlvey, one of the Resident Directors at Covenant College.
Your turn: This is by no means an exhaustive list; if you have suggestions to add, please leave them in comments.
Please share this post with others who have college-bound children or friends.
Thanks much for this! Great timing as our oldest child just moved into the dorms at Grove City College last week when a spot on campus opened. I sent on to my husband and we have both printed and are praying on! Thanks for sharing this. (:
KATIE!!!!
We went through that last year; we're pros now that Rachel is a sophomore :). I'm so glad it resonated with you; you can tell it did with me. Blessings, friends xo.
Thank you so much for this, Robin. Having two in college now, I can hardly keep up with all the prayers that are needed on their behalf!
P.S. I’m going to share your post with my readers this weekend.
Shelly,
I have a feeling you and I could have come up with this list if we had put our minds to it, but I’m thankful it was done for me :). Sometimes it helps a mom or dad out just to have some insight from those who work on campus with out kids, you know?
THANK you for sharing!!!
Awesome! I’m sharing this list with my Moms In Prayer group. We gather to pray for our College and Career kids every Monday. It’s an awesome time of mighty prayer and blessed fellowship. I’ve prayed most of my kids (3 out of 4) through college. Now my last one is applying and I’m covering the stressful process in prayer. These are great reminders of what our kids most need prayer for! Thanks!
Our youngest daughter is a junior and it has ben her roughest year. Mostly because she isn’t putting her relationship with Jesus first. I appreciate the prayer list idea. Put some things into perspective. ?
This is a great prayer list, and I am posting it to my Pinterest board to share with others. . .Thank you
Elise,
You’re almost there, Mama :). And the pre-college part IS stressful; it feels like such a monumental decisions, like the rest of your life depends on it. Which, I guess, in a sense, is true :). (Thanks for sharing this post!!)
Rhonda,
🙂 Perspective r e a l l y helps reorient your thinking, doesn’t it? I’m glad this list helps!
Susan,
THANK YOU!! When I asked the list’s author if I could share this on my blog, his hope was many would see it so they would pray with intention. Sharing it on pinterest helps accomplish that–thank you!! 🙂
Thank you, my oldest leaves tomorrow to go back to KC for college. (we are in MT) I linked to it on FB, great to have an organized way to pray for him…
Thank you. My time is this Saturday!
How did it go, Lisa?
Another thank you, my daughter is leaving 8/21/2015. She already is making some questionable choices and I am praying for her safety non stop, but I think I need to refocus an redirect my prayers for her.
It’s not easy, is it, Dorothy? Our children are about as perfect as we are, and when they make choices we KNOW could hurt them…it’s hard. To pray over them is sometimes the only thing we can do, but I know it doesn’t always feel like enough.
Except it is. {{hugs}}
. ” Please, Lord, prepare that person that you are making ready for my grandchild to marry; prepare my grandchild to be a good spouse; prepare them both to meet each other and know when the time is right.”
Amen, Julie…amen.