How to have a Spring Break you won’t regret
Courtney Couch
Spring break is a much-needed week off from school. Professors assign homework that is typically ignored, and college students everywhere look to escape to somewhere warm and tropical.
For many Spring Breakers, the week is a blur. Partying seems fun at the time, but what happens on Spring Break never stays at Spring Break. What should have been the time of our lives becomes a week we don’t remember and can’t live down. Decisions that seemed harmless at the time haunt us as we see him or her around campus.
This year, it’s time to break the cycle.
4 Ways To Have A Spring Break You Won’t Regret
1. Be wise.
If you’re older than 21 and you can’t drink without getting drunk, then don’t put yourself in a situation where you’ll be tempted to drink. The apostle Paul wrote two letters to his close friend Timothy that are recorded in the Bible. Paul and Timothy were so close that Paul thought of him like a son. In 1 Timothy 6:11, Paul writes to Timothy and warns him to run away from temptation to live for himself and his own gain: “But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.”
2. Surround yourself with people who love Jesus.
The people around you will influence you. If you’re encouraged to be like Jesus, you’ll act like Him. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:22 to “pursue … those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.” Proverbs 13:20 states, “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.” If the people you’re spending time with drink to get drunk, sleep around and love to get high, you are choosing to guide yourself toward those habits.
3. Remember Who you represent.
Paul says in Galatians 2:18, “If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.” Paul is saying that when we are Christians, we are representing Christ. If we return to our old habits/addictions/idols we had pre-Jesus, then we are misrepresenting Jesus and what it means to follow Him.
4. Have fun.
Don’t feel like you have to stay at home under parental supervision because you’ve been changed by Christ. If you have an outgoing personality, trapping yourself indoors for a week feels like house arrest! As Christians, our job is to love others. Our love for Jesus should overflow out of us in the form of passionate love for others. When love is our motivation, we are not looking to take advantage of others or seek attention through ‘crowd-pleasing’ fun.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." Temptation is a fact of life. The Lord promises to go before us, but we decide how prepared we will be when we meet temptation. We can’t make temptation disappear, but we can control where we are, who we’re with, and what we do with our time.