Going home for winter break after your first college quarter can be difficult, especially if you grew close to friends you made in a Christian community. Developing personal, vulnerable relationship with people who were once strangers but now are who you consider to be brothers and sisters to you makes the thought of leaving campus and going back home for nearly a month particularly tough. Are you truly “going home” when you have to leave your church/Jesus-loving family until the new year?

The “going home” part can also be tough if your home life is not the healthiest environment for you. Maybe Jesus isn’t at the center of your family’s home life at all.

I want you to know that however non-ideal your home life is, you can still grow in your relationship with God over winter break! Too many college students see winter break as a time to marathon episodes of Netflix, sleep in past noon, and stay out late goofing off with old high school friends. While you definitely can feel free to have fun with old friends you haven’t seen in a while, find the time to give your body some peaceful rest and catch up on that TV show you’ve been missing out on (because you’ve surely spent all of your time being diligent in your schoolwork), winter break is also full of opportunity to continue the spiritual growth your college Christian community gave you.

Stop treating the end of the year as a time to make goals about things you want to accomplish next year. Winter break should be all about creating and building momentum into the New Year!

An essential strategy for continuing to obey God and allow Him to further develop your character as a college-going Christian is to have practical goals set in advance to fulfill each day you’re on break! These smaller, daily goals work better than setting long-term ones for winter break for many reasons: 1. the little goals begin to add up and shape a daily schedule, and 2. in completing these smaller, daily goals, you can accomplish those larger goals you want to achieve in attainable chunks.

A key example is wanting to read a book over break. Say I want to read Richard Lamb’s “Following Jesus in the 'Real World': Discipleship for the Post-College Years” before I start winter quarter. That’s a cool goal to have this break. But by breaking that up into smaller, daily goals, I not only build confidence that I will finish the book but begin to fill a daily schedule for myself. If I spend an hour each morning (excluding Sundays to have a weekly day off) to read a small portion of the book and take notes to reflect and apply what I’m taking in, I already have an hour of my day structured. (And pacing yourself while reading a book meant to give you knowledge and wisdom allows yourself time to truly soak in everything to be learned.)

Finding pleasure in structuring our time doesn’t mean turning everything into checkboxes. When we learn how to prioritize and budget our time, we can then hand it over to God in the form of prayer, reading the Bible, and discerning with those we consider mentors and leaders. This allows Him to structure and prioritize our time according to how He wants us to grow. In letting Godly Wisdom structure how we spend our time this break, we allow God to “direct” our paths:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV).

This winter break, let’s allow God to direct our paths through dedicating and focusing each daily, practical goal we make to Him. Our spiritual journey as Christians in college doesn’t have to be put on hold when we go home for break. No season of life God gives you should ever be met by you waiting around for the opportune moment to start growing again.

This winter break is another blessed season for you to continue to seek God and apply His Scripture and Wisdom to your life. Don’t let it pass you by!