Communication

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To Thrive or Not To Thrive

Posted on May 6, 2013 by trbarlowLeave a comment


Many in the medical profession know about a condition in infants known as Failure-To-Thrive-Syndrome (FTTS). Infants that are being fed, changed and monitored, given all the basic care, are unable to thrive essentially because of the fact that they are not being ‘loved on’ often enough by parents of caregivers. And of course no one can care for newborns like their own parents and because their parents aren’t present for one reason or another, they are left to the mercy of those less invested, those who are not their own flesh and blood (this happens at the other end of the spectrum in nursing homes with the elderly as well) by whom they are often handled with less affection and enthusiasm than they would otherwise be. They are thankfully those exceptional people and staff members that “adopt’ infants or elderly and relate to them and love on them as if they were their own. The truth is there are those spiritually newborn in our churches suffering from a similar syndrome, who have not been sufficiently welcomed into this new world that is opening up for God’s children, who have not been reassured of their true worth in His image, and that it is safe for them to step out in faith into a life in His Spirit. At the other extreme too are those elderly in our churches that aren’t being loved lavishly as they leave these parts, who don’t sense that they will be missed, who aren’t being reminded of the blessing they are and have been. (Because all have been though certainly in different ways or degrees, but, if we look for it with the eyes of faith, all have been, and will yet be.) These young and old are in many cases left to the “professionals’ who are clinical and hopefully efficient in their care but still not like family for which there is no replacement, for which there are only poor substitutes. Lord, help us in our churches and even our institutions to be more like family for each other. Because if we are like family in the best sense we will be more of a blessing to each other, and as we bless one another within “a culture of blessing” we will be empowering our young and our older ones to thrive in this world and beyond it.

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