I read in a recent Newsweek article that it costs the average middle-class set of parents $178,590 to raise ONE CHILD to the age of 18, and that doesn't even include college! Throw in a 4-year college and that amount skyrockets well above $200,000. To think that my folks likely spent close to half a million dollars on my brother and me blows my mind.

Goodness, how does one grapple with such a staggering fact? On the one hand, I'm leveled with an indescribable amount of gratitude and awe over the selfless and unending love of my parents, while on the other I'm humiliated by the needless costs I certainly demanded as a child and teen. To consider how that measures up to our neighbors around the world ( especially in the poorest of countries like Chad, Haiti, and India) simply brings more shame.

I guess my query is this--How do we, as Christ-followers, strive to provide and overwhelm our children with a love as lavish as a parent's while keeping true to a want and call for simplicity?

Or, in other words, how do we live out the theme of Proverbs 22? How do we hold to the fact that "a good name is more desirable than riches"(1) and that the rich and poor are both subject to the same Maker (2)? How do we "train a child in the way he should go" so that "he will not turn from it" (6), in the community we find ourselves in? Is there a line to be drawn between certain comforts/riches and right living when it comes to raising children?

I guess the answer is likely obvious. Perhaps once the evident "Yes!" is given, then the appropriate question would be, "Ok, so where do I draw it?"