Remember back to when you were in elementary school.

What was your favorite time of day? Did you look forward to snack time when your teacher would have everyone sit in a semicircle and smack on their goldfish and fruit rollups, while she read out loud? Do you remember walking in lines everywhere, hearing everyone "shh" each other, and never wanting to be the caboose?

I always looked forward to recess when we could go outside even though there was constantly a line for the swings and I was always afraid of falling from the monkey bars.

When I think back to these memories, they don’t feel real. They feel like something I once dreamed about or read in a book somewhere. It’s interesting to think about how I changed from that girl on the monkey bars when I was too afraid to let go and swing to the next. It makes me miss the past when I could go home and my only worry would be the math problems assigned as homework for that night.

When you leave for college, you know deep inside that nothing will be the same again. Home won’t be home anymore and your relationship with your parents will change.

"As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem" Isaiah 66:13 English Standard Version (ESV)

Sometimes the feeling of being homesick is suffocating. It’s not just a feeling for kids away at summer camp or freshmen at college. Imagine how the military member feels while deployed for months at a time or the girl who just moved to a big city for a summer internship.

What helps most in dealing with homesickness is keeping in mind why you are where you are, knowing your purpose. Call out to God for comfort. Because he has a purpose for you. Whatever period of life you are in, you have a reason to be where you are.

Attending college in the deep south, I’m getting a degree so I can graduate and go work where I want. Working the night shift, every little bit counts. Stationed in Iraq, you are serving your country. God has a plan for your life.

“I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me” Psalm 57:2 English Standard Version (ESV)

Everything always seems so much better in the past, but you can’t go back to the past. You can’t go home and have everything be the way it was. Just focus on the present, get the job done, and home will be waiting for you when you’re done.