Failure to Thrive

When our oldest son was about one-year-old, he needed corrective surgery. In the room next to his, there was a baby who was dying, literally dying from a lack of ability to connect with his environment. The diagnosis was Failure To Thrive. It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen. He was from the far north and no one came to visit. No one cuddled. No one stroked. The nurses hung bags of “food” that dripped into a feeding tube but beyond that, as far as I could see, my wife and I were the only ones who gave this little boy any physical contact. I don’t know how long he’d been there but he died in the short time between our son’s admission and discharge.

Have you been rejected? Have you felt as though you’re not acceptable?
. Without feeling loved and accepted, we soon fail to thrive.
. Without feeling loved and accepted, we simply will not be grounded enough to deal with the harshness of life.
. Without feeling loved and accepted, the ability to give and receive love will likely never develop.

People who haven't known love and acceptence can exist, of course, but they will fail to thrive. It’s these people who typically either over compensate / over achieve to get strokes; they act out negatively to get attention; or they withdraw in the hopes that no one will notice them. It’s from these people that you hear a response of “Oh, I’m surviving,” to the question of, “How’er you doing?”

In fact, pagans think, “I’m a survivor,” is a pretty good response. Many popular songs have "surviving" as their primary theme.

I know of only One thing that can change all this. As Paul describes in Romans chapter 8, in the face of the loss and tragedy and suffering that comes with life on earth, “We [can be] more than conquerors.” The cross and the death of Jesus upon it, a death that took place to provide for your salvation shows in no uncertain terms that you have not been rejected. Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf shows that you are accepted and valued and loved with a love from which nothing in the material universe can separate you.

Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it to the full.”
Don’t just aim to survive. Live and thrive and become more than a conqueror.