This picture is my mom holding my youngest son Tucker. He is 8 months old and already a sweet little kid who loves and fears his 2 older brothers at the same time.

Tucker has had trouble swallowing since he was very small. He nursed well almost from birth but as we tried to make the switch to baby food, solid food, bottles, sippy cups, etc he couldn’t do it. My poor wife has literally tried every kind of bottle known to man…he won’t take it.

At his most recent doctor visit his measurements showed him to be in just the 3% range for weight. So even though he is 8 months old, he measures like a 4 month old. Needless to say the doctor was concerned, and diagnosed him as “Failure to Thrive”. She very much attributes this to the fact that he cannot be sustained and continue to grow at the necessary pace on the consistency of the breast milk that has gotten him to this point. He needs more calories. He needs thicker foods. He needs food that will fatten him up and help him continue to grow like he needs too. She has given us some tips to try and referred us to a specialist. (Thankfully, after much prayer and patience he has begun eating a little better)

I am confronted by this idea of failure to thrive in ministry to students. How many of my students are still trying to live on the milk when they should have already moved on to the baby food, and solids and meat? A statement I heard that I love is, “don’t allow the longevity of a kid in our ministry to cause you to equate that with their spiritual maturity.” We must continue to prod them. We must continue to challenge them with “food” that will help them to grow. Eventually they have to become self-feeders. Corrie can’t be Tucker’s only source of food very much longer or it will be detrimental to his growth. The same is true of our students or me or you. They must be taught the skills of Bible reading, prayer, devotion, meditation, fasting, solitude, worship, etc.

If not we run the risk of having lots of babies who never get off the milk and aren’t strong enough to survive.

“By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.” (Hebrews 5:12-14 MSG) (via youversion.com)