Two years ago, with
our elder daughter about to go off to university for the first time, my husband and I had the idea of
setting up a support network locally for Christian parents in a similar
situation. As a close family we had some
mixed feelings about the forthcoming transition – surely other parents must be
feeling similarly? With the aim of
meeting up a couple of times a term to discuss topics of mutual concern, to
offer information and encouragement and to pray for our students, we publicised
the group among the local churches in our area.
And so the One More Step network was born.
For the last two years
there have been opportunities to meet up, and we have had great conversations
with those who have come along. We’ve
also had great conversations with others who haven’t been able to come along to
the meetings, and as finding the right day and time for everyone has proved
challenging, we’ve now decided to widen it out by means of a blog, so that this
can morph into a supportive online community.
We took the One More
Step title for the group from the Sydney Carter song that we remember from our
younger days – it may now sound a bit cheesy, but it sums up God’s journeying
with us every step of the way: “and it’s
from the old I travel to the new, keep me travelling along with you”. As parents we have been travelling with our
children for the last 18+ years, and now all of a sudden it’s time for them to travel
“from the old things to the new”. God
travels along with our offspring, and indeed is already travelling ahead of
them too. And for those of us still at
home – well God will be with us too, helping us to readjust, to cope with the
changed family dynamics, and to reconnect with our offspring as and when we are
able.
My intention is to put
up regular posts focussing on different topics that we might face as parents of
students either starting or returning to university or indeed applying for
university. It would be great to start
discussions on how we support our students, thereby supporting each other at
this time of transition.
Over the next few
weeks our attention will be particularly on our younger daughter, currently
awaiting her A Level results. Maybe your
son or daughter is awaiting exam results.
What are your feelings in this waiting period?
