"Parenting is your primary calling"

"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 options for investing your life's energies and creativity. There is more than you could ever do. You must, therefore, prioritize.

Parenting 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 will mean your home does not look like a picture from Better Homes and Gardens.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 influence the kind of ministry you are 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 costs 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 known the heartbreak of seeing their children fleeing a home in which they had not been understood or 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 a parent place on that."

Tedd Tripp Shepherding a Child's Heart p97.
(emphasis mine)

What do you think?

On the one hand, I wonder if he is overstating his case. After all, so many people bring up their children with so little effort and inconvenience. They continue to lead busy lives, climb the 'corporate ladder' and pursue all that interests them. Their children don't turn out so bad either!

On the other hand, I fear he may be right. We will have only a short time to invest in our children, and help them find the resources they need to live their lives to accomplish God's purposes for and through them. Maybe it should be our top priority at this time.