things I wish I knew before college as a Christian
@hoperiee
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Why it worked
The creator provides relatable and actionable advice for a specific demographic (Christian students entering college), addressing common anxieties and offering encouragement. The personal anecdotes and clear, numbered points make the content easily digestible and shareable.
Summary
The creator shares five pieces of advice for Christian students entering college. She emphasizes that faith is personal and requires intentionality, finding a church community is crucial, and it's okay to outgrow friendships that negatively impact one's faith. She also highlights that God cares about all decisions, not just the big ones, and encourages students to prioritize their relationship with God to thrive in college.
Structure
1Your faith is your own, not your parents' or pastor's.
2Be intentional about your relationship with God.
3Finding a church community should be a priority.
4It's okay to outgrow friendships that pull you from Christ.
5Being alone is better than relationships God never intended for you.
6God cares about all decisions, not just the big ones.
7College can strengthen your faith if you prioritize God.
8
Original caption
You got this!! If your an upcoming freshman I’m praying for you, remember college is what you make it 💗💗#christiantiktok #jesuslovesyou #fyp #collegeadvice
More from @hoperiee
Their other posts in the index, biggest breakout first.
The goal is to grow into the person God created you to be, not just survive.
On-screen text
things I wish I knew before college as a Christian
Transcript
things I wish I knew before college as a Christian
Here are some things I wish I knew before I started college as a Christian.
When you're entering college as a freshman, your faith is your own. It's not your youth pastor's salvation, it's not your parents' salvation, it's not your youth group's salvation. It is your own. Treat it as your own. Your walk with God is something that you do on your own. If you're relying on those people to have your salvation, you are mistakenly wrong. Because when put in the right environment, your faith will definitely be tested. Number two, you will accidentally stay close to God. You have to be intentional. If you're not intentional with actually trying to remain close to God, it's not going to magically happen. You have to take measures, whether that's being intentional about your prayer time, whether it's being intentional about reading your Bible, whatever that looks like to you, you actually have to be intentional because college, your relationship with Christ may drift if you are not actually intentional about keeping him in the center. Number three, finding a church and Christian community should be a priority, not an afterthought. Let me tell you something, I treated that as an afterthought. When I got to college, it was so hard for me to find a Christian community. I found a temporary one and then I switched. But it should be your priority. When you land on campus, you need to find a church. Because if you take months to find a community, you're going to feel this way. I'm going to leave that there. I don't think I need to get into that. It's okay to outgrow friends that pull you from Christ. You will meet as a freshman, you will have like at least 50,000 friends when you first land on campus. Everyone just wants friends, you know, especially if people aren't carrying their friends from high school to this new school. Like everyone just wants friends. You know, especially if people aren't carrying their friends from high school to this new school. Like everyone just wants friends. You know, if you don't have to say in those friendships, you can actually outgrow them. It's okay. It's actually okay. It's part of life. It's part of maturity. Number five, being alone is better than relationships God never intended for you. Missing one quiet time with God does not mean you failed, okay? Repeated sister, you got to get all your views and cues. Your identity is not your GPA. Let me tell you here, as someone who's going to law school and is pursuing law school seriously, the academic pressure is insane. Your GPA is not your identity. Let me tell you here, as someone who's going to law school and is pursuing law school seriously, the academic pressure is insane. Your GPA is not your identity. God cares about every decision, not just the big ones. Don't think that he only wants you to be with him for the big ones. He also wants you to be with you in the small decisions. I think I learned that about God as well. Like he doesn't just want you, when you want him. He wants you all the time. It is a relationship. You don't have to have all the answers. Even as I'm sharing my faith now on this platform, I don't have all the answers. There are parts of the Bible I don't understand. There are questions that I can't even answer that I don't know. That doesn't mean or give me an excuse that I'm not going to share my faith online. Okay? I'm going to do these last two. Number one, college can strengthen your faith if you let it drive you toward God instead of away from him. Hear that boldly and clearly. College can strengthen your faith. Number two, the goal isn't to survive college as a Christian, but to grow into the person that God created you to be. As much as it's so easy to say to go with a survival mindset, God doesn't want you to just survive. He wants you to thrive in your environment. So putting him as a priority is so important because being able to have your yes as your yes and your no as your no is so important because pure pressure, forget high school. I don't think high school pure pressure is as bad as college. So yeah. Parents are watching, FIFA. So, so just, just, just.
