Houghton Mifflin handed Dr. Seuss a 225-word vocabulary list and told him to write a children's book out of it. He complained that there were no adjectives, then went back to the list and wrote The Cat in the Hat. The constraints your classes put on you are doing something similar, and the instinct to want a bigger box is usually the wrong one.

I spent this week reading through the survey responses from our online students. The thing that stuck with me was not in the ratings but in the open-ended answers, where more students named some version of loneliness as the hardest part of studying online than named anything else. The reason you are doing this degree online is your life, your ministry, your family, your job, and that very thing that makes online education possible is the same thing that makes it hard.

One of the best things you can do as an online student happens outside the classroom: finding people to talk with about what you're learning, starting with the pastors and elders already in your orbit. Whether it's a monthly conversation with your pastor, an Experiential Modular, or a connection that starts in the Southern Seminary app and turns into a group text, the principle is the same. Don't do seminary alone.

At our new student orientation, Dr. Vickers was asked what advice he had for seminary students. He answered by asking about the two greatest commandments and then connecting the second one to your calendar. When you don't study when you said you would, the work moves later in the week and crowds out the very people you're being trained to serve.

Knowledge and wisdom are not the same thing but they are closely related. Seminary has a way of tempting you toward pride, whether you realize it or not. God has called you to learn these things so you can teach and lead his church, so pray that he would keep you humble along the way.

Two years and 104 emails in, what you've taught me is that every situation is unique and the struggles underneath are remarkably consistent. What gets people to graduation is resilience, showing up week after week. Seminary is hard and you're not alone in that.

Our limits expand one comfortable decision at a time. Good decisions made without a plan to get back can leave you somewhere you never intended to be. A word for students heading into the fall semester.

You can watch every video out there on how to ride a bike and it will only get you so far. Some things you only learn by doing. Seminary works the same way.

Reflections on the mercy of God from Psalm 103 and Spurgeon, and a question about where you're running on your own strength. Plus a look at Preview Courses.

One of your fellow online students tested studying with his phone in another room and the results were hard to argue with, plus a first look at this fall's electives.

What editing photos taught me about how easily we deceive ourselves in our studies, and the simple habits that keep you honest. Plus two new fully online master's degrees from Boyce College worth passing along.

What real excellence looks like in seminary and why your worth was never the thing you were studying to earn.

What the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history says about pressing on in seminary, one small decision at a time. Plus, library research guides to jump-start your next paper."

On time, change, and what keeps you going when a seminary degree feels long.

You are not studying alone. Celebrating two recent graduates from our online learning office, and the team whose work makes the program possible.

You are more than a screen and a heads up on fall/winter sabbaticals