by Judi Weiss

Summer’s a great time. Youth activities, friends, or just sleeping in until noon. Summer is wonderful. But then it ends, with a flurry of back-to-school shopping. And some teens are heading to different schools. Maybe starting high school. Maybe starting college.

Even if you’re taught at home, the school year can be brutal. If you don’t have Jesus, it can be even worse. Going through the motions of school is tough, especially when you add on all the other teenage year horrors: Acne problems, crushes, teachers, and the other slew of problems.

Even believers can start to feel abandoned, forsaken in the world.

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me…”

Sound familiar? David cried them out in Psalm 22. I think about those words a lot. Especially when I feel alone. Even though I know God never leaves, I still feel that way sometimes.

But I’m comforted by the words in Hebrews 13:5 “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

No matter where you are in life, whether you’re starting middle school, high school, or college, and no matter what the school year throws at you, Jesus stays with us always.