As I progress through my sophomore year of college, I have been able to apply what I learned about life last year to help me succeed going forward. My faith in God has, for a long time, been something that is very important to me.
Entering college, I knew that I wanted to remain faithful to God and the church. To do this, I would continue to attend Mass and strive to live in accordance with God’s will to the best of my ability.
As it is for many people, my first year at college was one that was full of many new things. Some were very exciting, like being on my own for the first time and finally being able to choose what I wanted to study. Other things, however, were a lot more intimidating and stressful.
For example, I had to learn to keep up with a much more demanding course load and had to make sure that new responsibilities, like completing financial aid documents, were taken care of.
In order to deal with this stress, I turned to my faith in God to help me through. In that way, my stress actually became an avenue by which I was able to become closer to God. When something very stressful would happen, I got into the habit of going to church, asking for God’s help and trusting that he would help me to accomplish what I needed to accomplish.
For me, this habit became one that helped me to focus my day on those things that are really the most important: God, my family and my neighbors. When I was able to see all of my other responsibilities in their proper places in my life, I was able to more effectively deal with them — and with less anxiety.
Although the stresses of life change from day to day and year to year, I am able to use them to strengthen my relationship with God and live a life that is more peaceful, even when it seems like the world around me is in chaos.
When I am tempted to forgo my time spent in prayer and think that the time would be better spent studying or in some form of relaxation like reading a book or watching TV, I realize even more how important it is for me to center my life on those things that are the most important.
Jesus tells us in Luke 21:34 to “beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from…the anxieties of daily life.” He is saying that those things we least expect, like the monotony and stress of daily life, can be some of the things that most destroy our peace. However, as I found in my own life, taking these things to prayer can lead to peace and help us to live a happy life.
ZACH ASZALOS
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