How Much Is This Going To Cost Me?

   The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to eighteen and came up with $160,140 for a middle-income family. Talk about sticker shock.

   But $160,140 isn’t so bad if you break it down.  It translates into $8, 896.66 a year, $741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week.  That’s a mere $24.44 a day.  Just over a dollar an hour. What a bargain!  

   For most folks, the precious gift of a child is worth more than any amount of money. It does, however, make us realize how precious of a resource our children are.  A lot of money,  time and energy go into the raising of a child. All we invest in them can be wasted if we neglect their spiritual training. A child may want for nothing physically, but still can be starving if not given spiritual food. In Ephesians  6:4 we are told.. “do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”   A parent’s duty is not only provide the physical but also the spiritual training our young people so desperately need. No amount of money can buy the lessons that a father can teach his children by living a Godly life and instructing his children to do the same.  $24.44 a day is nothing compared to a mother that helps her children see the beauty of God’s word every day. $160,140 may raise a child till they are eighteen, But spiritual training will last them for all eternity.