Setting our Freshmen up for Success

For four years, I’ve posted a blog every August to connect prayer warriors with incoming high school and college freshmen. When I started, I had two children who had already experienced their freshman years in high school, but the transition to college was something still unknown to us.

Today as I write, both my children have navigated the last of their freshman years. In some ways, I’m greatly relieved. In other ways, it’s a reminder of how time marches on. Either way, however, I’m more convinced than ever of the need for prayer warriors to cover this season of entry for both high school and college students.

As many of you can relate, my children are as different as night and day. The colleges they selected reflect their unique strengths and preferences. I’ve had children in both a public high school and a private high school... a small school and big school. Be assured that, regardless of the personality of your child or the size of the educational institution, human nature is the same. And more importantly, God’s power is the same.

It’s in these first two months of school that students are most vulnerable to compromise in order to have a sense of belonging. Way too often, I’ve seen the enemy use fear or insecurity to drive students to make decisions in those early days they ordinarily would never have made. Let’s cover our students with prayer and ask God to a) orchestrate the birth of new God-centered friendships, and b) protect them from all the ways the enemy tries to attack the values and faith we’ve spent so many years trying to nurture in our sons and daughters.

Do you have a freshman in high school or college who you’d like to be covered in prayer for the first two months of school? If so, I’d like to encourage you to comment below with their name and school. 

Likewise, if you’d be willing to commit to pray for one or two students between August 20 and October 20, please comment below and let me know your availability.

(When I posted this blog last year, I ended up with some technical issues on my website that meant some people with students to be prayed for never got matched up with prayer warriors, and vice versa. I’m praying technology will be on our side this year!)

The attacks of the enemy on college campuses are more palpable than I could’ve ever imagined. As you pray for these students, I encourage you to also pray for revival on the college campuses across this country.

Please share with anyone you know who has a high school or college freshman and let’s get on our knees. Prayer works!