College is a busy time and it is very easy to fall away from God. Finding a thousand excuses to not go to Church or to just not give God time at all is so easy to do. You have homework and your involved on campus and you need to study and so on and so forth. Becoming too busy for God is easy and it definitely happened to me, but after a hard second semester freshman year, I've realized that making time for God is very important in college.

I thought that when I came to college, I was going to be able to balance school. my sorority, my faith, and my social life, but eventually things got overwhelming and I pushed my faith to the back of my mind. Going to a Catholic high school and being involved in youth ministry made finding God in high school very easy. For the longest time, I tried to convince myself that I was still deep in my faith and that everything was fine, but it wasn't. I was drowning and I needed to be pulled out of the water.

In the second semester the Chaplain of my sorority set up a prayer request box in our house and at the next chapter meeting, she would give us a note replying to our request. I had written a request because I really just needed a sign that everything would work out even though nothing had gone my way in what seemed like a really long time. I never told her this, but her response made me cry, a lot. You see, at that time everything was just falling apart and I was completely and utterly lost and I almost felt abandoned by God, because I just didn't understand how He could still love someone who had made the mistakes I did. I needed a reminder that I can't control everything and that God has a plan for me and that's what I found in my sweet sister's note. While I didn't immediately (and still haven't fully) get back to where my faith was, I slowly started allowing God back into my life.

I am by no means perfect in my faith, I haven't been to church in a while and I don't thank God as much as I should, but I'm slowly working my way back. I've come to realize that I can't really do this whole college thing without God. When people ask me why I believe in God the first thing that comes to my mind is comfort. In having a relationship with God, I find a comfort in knowing that I am loved unconditionally and that there is a plan for me, even if it isn't what I had in mind for myself. As humans we are always striving for more, we constantly change things to achieve whatever the new "best" is, but God's love is the best and there is nothing greater that we can strive for. I have to remind myself often that even when I do mess up, that God still loves me and he will forgive me.

College is tough, but I've seen that is much more tough without that healthy relationship with God. Praying alone won't get you an A on a test, but prayer and willingness to work for that A will. Having that relationship with God is also just a good reminder that mistakes are OK and that they happen, but He made and He loves you for who you are. It's challenging to balance life in college, but adding in your faith won't knock everything off track, in fact you may just find that balance you need.