Realize the importance

I recently began a sermon series on “How To Survive If Not Thrive In Bad Times.” These are bad times for many people, but perhaps the worst sufferers are children whose lives have been scarred and disfigured by what James Harper, president of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, calls “unimaginable circumstances: abuse, abandonment, neglect, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancy, exploitation, and difficult family situations.”

Every pastor, counselor, teacher, and social worker knows how children carry their physical and emotional scars with them well into their adulthood. Such scars often sabotage their careers and lives unless someone seeks to help and heal them.

That is what the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries does each and every day for children and families under the leadership of Dr. Harper and his gifted and caring staff. I see this Christ-like concern when Dr. Harper talks about saving, nurturing, and training (Matt. 28:19-20) children who “come to us worn down and hopeless.”

Every time I counsel a couple in trouble because of the baggage or garbage they still carry from childhood, I realize anew the importance of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries. Every time I visit a prison filled with adults who never had fatherly love and guidance, I realize anew the importance of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries. Every time I remember my experiences as a divinity student-volunteer teacher in an inner city high school where the most heartbreaking scenes were not just “economically deprived” but “emotionally-starved” students, I realize anew the importance of the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries.

If you also realize the importance of these ministries, will you help children “survive if not thrive in bad times” with your prayerful and financial support? Please remember the Children’s Home Mother’s Day Offering on May 9!

Baxter, pastor of First Baptist Church on the Square in LaGrange, serves as chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, Inc.