The Costs

Here I sit - at four o'clock in the morning - wide awake. My wife and I do not seem to get too much sleep these days, it is rare that either one of us get a full night of sleep. With a three-month-old, a three-year-old, a five-year-old, and an eight-year-old it seems like one of them is always awake - as if they are taking shifts throughout the night. So far tonight I have visited with three of the four!

A friend recently asked if we sleep well in our house. I responded; we sleep as much as can be expected for having four small children. And I am not complaining about the amount of sleep I get - or lack thereof. My wife and I knew what we were getting into when we decided to have multiple children. One of the "costs" of multiple children is that you must be willing to give up sleep on a regular occasion.

And, when I begin to think about it, there are several "costs" to having multiple children - but I will not begin to list them here. Yet, given all of the "costs", the benefits far outweigh the costs on any list that I could make - starring into the wide eyes of my infant daughter as she looks at me during her 3:00 feeding, singing over my other daughter as she drifts off to sleep with a bit of a smile on her face, and feeling my sons tiny toddler hand wrap my arm tightly around him as we "cuddle" in his bed. Who needs a full night of sleep when you have these gifts?

All this got me thinking about "costs". If we are not willing to face the "costs" we miss out on the gifts that wait for us. This is true in every relationship we have - friendship, marriage, parenting, and our relationship with Christ. But are we willing to face the "costs"?

Sometimes we wonder why we are not experiencing the great benefits in our relationships and yet we are not willing to face the "costs" that are required of us. Do we spend the time pouring into each of our relationships and into the people that we desire to be close to? Are we putting our money and resources into the individuals that matter the most? Are we willing to sacrifice some of the small things in order to build something that lasts?

Often the "costs" that we must face are sacrifices to us directly. We can never hope to build lasting relationships with friends, spouses, children, or Christ if we are overly focused on ourselves. Selfishness makes us more aware of the "costs" and causes us to overlook the gifts.

So let us take our focus off of ourselves and place our focus on others. And let us stop concentrating on the "costs" and begin to appreciate the gifts.