Thought of the Day 03.25.10

As the father of three boys, let me share a secret no other parent will tell you: kids aren’t worth it. I’m absolutely serious. They aren’t worth it. The money, the time, the frustration, the rejection, the stress, the anxiety, the loss of sleep, the fights they cause with your spouse. If the return you seek for your investment is happiness, I strongly recommend you invest elsewhere.

Nevertheless, I intend to have more of them, and I fervently hope all of you will experience the magnificent horror of becoming a parent. You see, we get it wrong about kids for the same reason we get it wrong about salvation. God doesn’t save us because we’re worth saving, but because He is the sort of loving Being who wastes His resources on wretched things. And make no mistake, children are wretched things.

No child will ever pay us back as much as his life cost to form. And that’s exactly why giving such life is the most gloriously divine thing any human can do. It’s also why couples who deliberately avoid having children for such reasons are inadvertently confessing a profoundly mistaken theology.