The Cost of Parenting

This Winter I was in a bible Study doing "Shepherding a child's heart" by Tedd Tripp. We watched videos where he taught on the different chapters. I missed a lot of weeks with traveling and for other reasons, but God still taught me a lot. I recommend this book. I want to do the book with Pat as a study with couples. This is an excerpt from the book that was read to us at our last meeting on Tuesday. I had remembered reading this myself.

I hope you other parents out there find this encouraging and are inspired about the place God has put us in life....

"The cost is great. It requires being available and fully engaged in parenting.

There is a simple way to look at the cost of deep. full-orbed communication. You must regard parenting as one of your most important tasks while you have children at home. This is your calling. You must raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. You cannot do so without investing yourself in a life of sensitive communication in which you help them understand life and God's world. There is nothing more important. You have only a brief season of life to invest yourself in this task. You have only one opportunity to do it, you cannot go back and do it over.

You live in a culture in which there are opportunities for you to do things unheard of in history. You are presented daily with scores of opportunities. There is more than you could ever do, you must, therefore prioritize.

To do this job of parenting well, it must be a primary task. It is your primary calling.

Parenting will mean that you can't do all the things that you could otherwise do. It will affect your golf handicap. It may mean your home does not look like a picture from Better Homes and Garden. It will impact your career and ascent on the corporate ladder. It will alter the kind of friendships you will be able to pursue. It will modify the amount of time you have for bowling, hunting, television, or how many books you read. It will mean that you can't develop every interest that comes along. The cost are high.

How can you measure the cost against the benefits? I have spent time with broken parents. I have seen the drawn faces of parents who have know the heartbreak of seeing their children fleeing a home in which they had not been engaged by their parents. I have also known the joy of hearing children who have been biblically engaged by their parents say, "Dad, I am amazed at how thoroughly I have been prepared for life. I will always be grateful for what you and Mom have given me."

What price tag can you place on that?

God calls you to invest yourself in this way with your children. This kind of communication is not just beneficial it is mandated! It is the path of blessing because it is the path of obedience. Is this kind of communication expensive? Yes! But the benefit far exceeds the cost."