This is the year of the new normal. That feels hopeful to write. I can’t say normalcy has ever been something I have strived for, but it sounds a lot better than abnormal. The problem is that abnormal has become the new normal. Let’s strive instead for healthy. Whatever this year holds, let’s press forward with a Biblical concept of what is healthy. At Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries (ABCH), our vision is healthy families for healthy futures.
Healthy is More Difficult in Crisis
One of the most profound lessons of this season is that a crisis easily redefines what is normal, but not what is healthy. As evidenced all around us though, healthy is more difficult in the face of a crisis. Childhoods are being stolen and families are becoming broken. More kids are entering foster care and fewer are getting to their forever homes. The strains in marriages are being ignored because of seemingly more pressing matters. Spiritual discontentment and societal conflict is on the rise. This is the new normal, but it’s not healthy.
Working Together to Rebuild
A shared vision of healthy families for healthy futures is so important because our world needs a blueprint for healthy childhoods and healthy families. The problem of brokenness is intergenerational, so many parents today don’t have a framework for creating a healthy household. Will they find it at your church? The counseling, advocacy, and foster care ministries of ABCH may be able to help you offer that blueprint to the families in your ministry. My hope is that together, we can rebuild healthy childhoods, healthy families, and healthy churches across Arkansas.