Congratulations! You are about to graduate high school and the years of homework, study, and tests will soon payoff. At times like these you may have conflicting feelings and emotions. It can be a moment of great joy and thrill because you finally finished an important goal in your life.

As pleased as you are right now, you also know big changes are coming to your life. Some may bring you good feelings. For example, many high school seniors long for the day when they can get away from dad and mom’s “rules”. You want to be on your own and make your own choices.

Then you start to think about what else is going to change. Your close friends plan to go to a different college in a different town than you will attend. Some will begin jobs in various places. You are not going to see the people you saw everyday for years. These changes do not make you so happy.

After leaving home you may also come to understand your parents had more to do with your happiness than you thought. As their financial support wanes you have to pay your own bills. You have to do the grocery shopping or figure out what to eat. Whatever your parents did around the house you now have to do where you live. Perhaps you did not like all their rules, but no one cared more for you than they.

Now it is time to stand on your own. This does not mean people who loved you will suddenly vanish or not help when you need a hand. It does mean you have more control over your choices and actions. If you make the right choices and do good, then you will enjoy the rewards of your efforts. However, if you choose poorly and do wrong, there is no one to blame but yourself.

No matter how strong you think you are evil is going test your faith when you leave home. I believe this is a most dangerous time for young adults. For your first eighteen years dad and mom guided and protected you. Now you meet new college Christian friends who may question or deny basic Bible teaching. You are talking with peers you just met and getting their view and advice. People who say they are Christians may not believe and practice what you do. Please remember not every member of a local church believes and practices the truth.

When trying to find your own way do not give up too quickly on the teaching of godly parents. Many young adults abandon much of what their parents taught them. Their new freedom is exciting and can mix up their thinking. “Dad and mom kept me from parties like this, but now I can go where I want.” “I had to get up early Sunday mornings for Bible class and worship. Now I can sleep as late as I want.”

I am concerned for our young adults when they leave home. Yes, we want them to grow up, move out, and do well in life. This is what God intended from the beginning. As Adam said, “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24) The trouble is too many leave the Lord to chase what makes them happy. Someday they will understand the “pleasures of sin” do not last.

To young Christian adults, who will soon leave or have recently left home, consider the following points to help you remain faithful and grow in the Lord.

Do not trust academia to answer the great questions of life. God gives us the answers.
Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 – The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Do not trust academia when it conflicts with Scripture. Too many Christians try to make the Bible fit what some call science rather than making anything called science fit the Bible.
1 Timothy 6:20-21 – O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” (science) for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.

Do not be so quick to dismiss what godly parents taught you in favor of believing youthful peers.
2 Timothy 1:5 – I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

Do not get caught up in silly exercises of the mind that serve no good.
1 Timothy 4:7 – Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness;

Do not let smooth and persuasive words sway you away from simple Bible teaching.
Romans 16:18 – For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Do not be overcome by the reasoning and appeal of religious indifference and social appeal.
2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

Examine yourself and your beliefs, but do so by judging all against the standard of God’s Word.
Acts 17:11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Terry Starling