August 4, 1999
FAMILY MATTERS: Adapting
to college is a life transition
___I've just moved into the dorm on my college campus, and I am so homesick it hurts! I miss my family, my friends and my church. What can I do to make the transition easier?
___Transitions and change are seldom easy, and it takes some time to recover your sense of security.
___Security is an instinctual need for most people. We learn to be comfortable and feel safe around the people and places that are familiar to us.
___Even though our families may not be perfect, they are familiar. We know what to expect from day to day. The feel of our bed, the sound of the dishwasher running and the voices we've grown up hearing all join together to create the place we call home.
Debbie Chisolm
Minister to Students
Royal Lane Baptist Church, Dallas
___Even when we played the childhood game of hide and seek, we learned we're "safe" if we're at "home."
___You can try to create a sense of "home" in your dorm room at school.
___Bring photos, stuffed animals, blankets and other items from home that will create the same kind of atmosphere you enjoyed in your bedroom.
___This may sound silly, but you could even run a tape recorder and tape the sounds of a typical evening at home--TV, dishwasher running, phone ringing, voices talking. And then when home feels too far away, you can play the tape in your dorm room while you're studying or getting ready for bed.
___Campus life during the summer is quite a bit different from the fall. Making new friends may be a little difficult right now, but when the campus is full of fall semester students, you will have many opportunities to be involved with campus life.
___Make sure you visit the Baptist Student Ministries building, and sign-up to go to FOCUS. You'll make a lot of good friends there!
___There isn't a campus in Texas that isn't surrounded by Texas Baptist churches that are ready and waiting to love you and minister to you. Visit them, and give them the opportunity to become a spiritual home and family to you.
___Psalm 139 reminds us that our real security comes from placing our faith in the One who is never far from us. God not only knows us but also is with us wherever our journey takes us.
___The Lord is with you wherever you go--even in a lonely dorm room on an unfamiliar campus.
___
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