The Four Pillars Are Crumbling

We have four pillars of health: Physical, Emotional, Mental, and Spiritual. They all work together. Once one is off, it starts affecting the others — and soon it becomes a domino effect.

In today’s world, we keep tampering with these pillars and wondering why our kids are struggling.

We feed our kids junk, which affects them both physically and mentally. We lie to our kids or fail to give them strong morals — that hits them spiritually, which in turn affects their emotional and mental stability. We keep our kids cooped up inside instead of letting them explore and play outside — and we wonder why they’re not doing well physically, emotionally, or mentally.

The list could go on and on.

What we fail to realize is this:

Our choices don’t affect just one part of our children. They affect them as a whole.

Take something extreme, like sexual abuse. It doesn’t just harm a child physically — in fact, physical damage is often the least of it. The true wounds run much deeper: emotional, spiritual, and mental. One act can harm every part of a child’s being. And if we don’t pursue healing in every area, we’re setting them up for long-term pain.

The same principle applies in more subtle ways too.
If we fail to give our kids something they need, it can harm multiple areas of their life.

For example:
If we don’t give children the chance to explore independently — especially outdoors — they will be stunted. Their development will be held back physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually.

As we move forward in this discussion on youth mental health, we have to keep this in mind:

The root causes often run much deeper than a single issue like bullying.

This mental health crisis is complex — and so are the solutions.
Trying to fix depression just by adding more exercise probably won’t work. It’s a good start, but it’s not the whole answer.

Children are like plants.
They don’t just need one thing. They need many right things, in balance.
If you plant corn in a dark basement, it might sprout. It might even grow a bit. But it’ll be pale, thin, and weak.
If you then move it into sunlight, that helps — but sunlight alone won’t save it. It still needs water. It still needs the right kind of soil, the right nutrients.

Kids aren’t simple creatures. But their needs are simple:

They need to be provided with the right things and protected from the wrong ones.

Sadly, I think we’ve got a lot of that mixed up today.

So over the next few posts, let’s take a closer look at what’s impacting the mental health of our kids and teens.
From school culture to diet, screens to home life — we’ll explore the key areas that I believe have brought this mental health pandemic to our front door.

Go Boldly - Live Wisely,
Charles