School starts for us next week.

In two weeks, we will take Sarah and drop her off at college.

As you can imagine, there is a lot of preparation going on in our home right now!

What is the best way to prepare for something new? Do you make lists or make piles? Do you wing it until the last minute? 

I would imagine we all get ready in different ways.

I am a planner, and I have found that if I don’t prepare in advance, I miss things that are important. I might miss buying a Math book or forget to pack underwear. You know, important things.

We all know this school year is a bit different, what with the uncertainty of COVID and all. However, it was going to be different for our family anyway, with our oldest heading off to college! So a few weeks ago, amidst the growing piles of dorm stuff, I decided I needed to prepare.

I learned a long time ago that while my lists are helpful, the best thing I can do to prepare for something big is…

PRAY.

Yep, it’s true! When I forget to pack underwear, I just run to the store and buy more. It might be inconvenient, but it’s not exactly life changing. But when I forget to pray, I feel it. It changes everything.

Prayer makes all the difference.

I knew I wanted to cover Sarah (and her friends) with prayer as she steps out into her new college adventure (whatever that ends up looking like!), so I selected 31 Bible passages to pray over her, one for each day of the month. They are not the “perfect college verses” or even necessarily the most applicable; they are simply a good place to start. And I knew if I didn’t plan for it in advance, I would find myself scrambling to find something every day, or worse- forget altogether.

So I chose some verses, and then went ahead and wrote out some prayers.

If you are anything like me, I tend to pray either very generally for my kids (Lord, let them love You!) or very selfishly (Lord, keep them safe. Lord, don’t let me kill them if they sass me again!). While there is nothing wrong with these prayers- I am a firm believer that God loves for us to come to Him with whatever is on our hearts- I have found that praying God’s Word releases an entirely different kind of power.

Some of these passages are verses I already pray over my kids on a regular basis. Some of them were shared with me by sweet friends (thank you!), and some of them came from my time with the Lord this past month. While I wrote the prayers with college students in mind, they easily apply to all teenagers, and many can be adapted for younger children as well.

I have decided to share them on my blog, thinking they might be helpful for some of you who are walking this life stage along with me. I will post a week’s worth at a time, and it is my prayer that God will use our collective prayers to empower young adults everywhere to claim His truths. May they shine brightly with the love of Christ in a world so desperately in need of Light!  

Please feel free to share these Scriptures with anyone who might find them helpful. And start making a list of verses yourself… then share it with me! It takes a village, friends! 

UPDATE:

By popular request, this blog series has been turned into an 8 page printable pdf!

Praying the Word: 31 Days of Praying Scripture over Your Teen & College Student is available now in my shop for $3.99.

Or you can get just the 31 Scripture verses without the prayers HERE for free.

I am super excited about what the Lord is going to do as we join together in prayer!

Lord, hear our prayer!