3 Weapons God gives us when going to college Essays - Christianity

3 Weapons God gives us when going to college Proverbs 22:6(KJV) 6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Philippians 4:6-7 6 Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. 7 Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Jeremiah 29:11-13(KJV)For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Introduction When I began writing this speech the first thing I did was look at the countdown timer I had created for myself so I can see how much more time I got until the burden of high school is over. The timer was at 7 weeks, 19 hours, 20 minutes, and 32 seconds until my official graduation ceremony begins. And for the last couple months each day I would check this timer and I would say to myself I'm so ready to go, I'm ready to get out of Charlotte, I'm ready to get away from my parents I'm ready to get out of North Meck , I'm ready to go. I know i'm not the only one. It seems like when we get this vision of us leaving and going to college and being( to a certain extent) on our own we begin to fantasize and over anticipate and underplay the readiness of college. But as a start to think about it I'm starting to realize that the closer and closer I get to graduation the more and more real this whole scenario is beginning to get I am beginning to see that this next section on my life is truly all on me. I have to rely on myself more than I ever have had to in my life. My parents aren't gonna be there everyday probably not even every month seeing that I am going to be hours away. And the thing is for a lot of us Seniors in here that is the realization of a lot of our situations most of us. Most of us will at least three to four hours away. And for most of us times will get tough, things will get hard, life will knock us down in these next four to five years. But the great thing about the word of god is that it has a solution to every situation we encounter in life. This scripture was a favorite of our reverend pellum as it seemed almost on every week long trip that we had. That Scripture is Jeremiah 29:11-13(KJV)For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I feel like this scripture can carry us through any situation that we are going to face in college and in life. This scripture tells us that any situation that we come across, any hill we have to climb we can give it to God and he will work it out. When you come across a class and you don't know how you're gonna pass remember God has a plan for you. When you're buried in books and you literally feel like giving up just remember god has a plan for you. When you done spent up all of your meal swipes and you got two more weeks left in a month and you have no extra funds to pay for food just remember god has plan for you. When the boy or girl you fell for

Smart Budgeting for College Students

Smart Budgeting for College Students College: the time when we stretch our wings, learn to fly†¦and do some serious partying! All levity aside, college is an important time in any person’s life. It’s where we set the stage for the rest of our life and form habits that will serve us well (or ill) in the years to come. Many will tell you that study habits are an important skill to cultivate. They might be. Some say your interpersonal skills will take you places. Uh-uh. Kindness, love, positive outlook? Maybe. Of course you shouldnt be completely lacking in all these areas. But these things can be learned fairly easily at any time during your life. And hopefully, you’ve already been practicing these skills for the majority of your years. The Importance of a Budgeting Skill The most important habit to strengthen during your college years is BUDGETING. Though you may not feel that money is something you should be focused on – and you’re right, it’s not, you should be able to exercise at least a modicum of control over your cash on hand. That’s the important point: Control. Living within your means, saving for the future (not talking retirement – think car or trip), and not getting caught in the slippery slope of debt (credit card interest rates rank among the most insidious and evil forces in the universe†¦right behind sugar). Self-Control is the Hardest Part At its heart, budgeting isn’t a difficult thing. The really tricky part is self-control. Budgeting provides something we all want – money for the things we need when we need them – but does require that we sometimes go without the things we want. The nice thing is, if we do it right, we can eventually have both: the things we need AND the things we want. It just takes time. That’s where the self-control comes in. We have to be able to wait and save for the wants while focusing squarely on the needs. And college is a perfect time to hone the budgeting skills because many of us still have a backup (our parents) to whom we can turn. How To Do It 1) Separate needs from wants. This is definitely the hardest part of the whole process. Wants can suddenly become needs when the weekend looms large and you need to unwind. But partying is by no means more important than eating or having a place to sleep or being able to get to class. Needs are, for the most part, things that keep you alive and functioning in your environment. Food, shelter, utilities, transportation money, so you can get to class. Wants are everything else. You could still make it through college alive and with a decent GPA without that case of beer†¦it would be less fun but you could do it. 2) Money goes to the needs first. Whatever money you have coming in (thorough work or an allowance) you should use to pay for the needs first. Unless you’re really poor, you’ll have a bit of money left over after the needs are taken care of. This leftover money can be used or saved for wants. That’s pretty much budgeting in a nutshell. The practice though, can take many forms and can be as complicated or as simple as you like. It can involve multiple bank accounts and lots of back-and-forth transfers or just a number of envelopes and a pile of cash. Cash is not recommended to college students – the envelope system is great, – but it’s just too easy to cheat (plus, there’s the whole security thing). The best method is somewhere in between complicated and simple while still making use of the basic concepts of the envelope system. Budgeting Categories Basically, all money that comes in is deposited in a checking account. You can then use a budgeting app or financial tracking software (choose your favorite) to earmark (set aside within the checking account) money for the needs and wants for which you are saving. Again, that’s pretty much it. Some categories in budget may include: food (meals), rent, utilities, gas money, weekend money (this includes parties), travel (probably not other countries but maybe just taking road trips every once in a while) and snacks (some coffee and a muffin now and again). If you spend all the money in one of the â€Å"want† categories (i.e., weekend money or snacks), you resist the urge to take from one of the other categories (even if it’s a â€Å"want† category) so that you train yourself to spend within your means. Make It More Simple If it’s easier to think in terms of weekly expenses, divide your monthly expenses by four and save accordingly. Most bills are paid monthly so if you know that you need $100 a month for food, earmark $25 each week to that category. When the end of the month comes, write a check for the monthly amount and start saving again. It is really just that simple. It may take a few minutes each week – and some serious self-control the rest of the time – to get everything earmarked but it’s time well spent in the long run. The college experience never comes around again but your money habits are with you for the rest of your life (like luggage). Take the time to build a good financial routine and your college years will be productive regardless of how much time you spend partying.