Celebrating Kids: Building Families that Reflect God’s Glory
It’s easy to think parenting is about numbers, the number of bedrooms, the number in your bank account, or even the number of children you “can afford.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that it costs more than $300,000 to raise a child to age 18, not including college costs. With housing prices, student debt, and job uncertainty, many young families quietly wonder if they’ve been priced out of parenthood.
When the Numbers Don’t Add Up
Wayne opens the conversation with honesty that many parents can relate to:
“Raising kids has become brutally expensive… I didn’t realize kids were going to cost this much!”
He laughs, but the tension is real. Between rent or mortgage, food, and student loans, it can feel impossible to start or grow a family. Yet Dr. Kathy reminds listeners that God’s economy doesn’t look like ours.
She acknowledges that money matters, it’s wise to budget and plan, but financial readiness shouldn’t be the ultimate measure of whether to welcome a child.
“Believers need to seek the Lord,” she says. “We check our savings and goals, but do we seek Him for children? We seek His will for lesser decisions all the time; shouldn’t we seek Him for something this important?”
Parenting Is a Call to Maturity, Not Comfort
Dr. Kathy challenges couples to ask deeper questions than just “Can we afford it?”
Have I lived enough life to be unselfish?
Am I mature enough to sacrifice joyfully?
Can I give up comfort to raise another image-bearer of God?
Parenthood, she explains, isn’t about having it all figured out, it’s about surrendering to a holy kind of stretching. It grows character. It reorders priorities. It shifts life from “me-centered” to “mission-centered.”
Wayne echoes this idea with humor and humility. As a dad of eight, he’s heard every comment. “Is that wise?” “How do you afford that?” “When do you sleep?” But he insists that while large families might not make financial sense, they make eternal sense.
“You don’t need a big house with more windows to wash,” Dr. Kathy adds with a smile. “You need experiences your kids can look back on, memories that teach them joy, faith, and togetherness.”
Resisting the Dehumanization of Childhood
Modern culture, Wayne observes, has a way of reducing children to statistics, labels, or stages: “fetus,” “toddler,” “teen,” “Gen Alpha.” They’re talked about, measured, and marketed to, but rarely celebrated as whole people.
Dr. Kathy calls that what it is: dehumanizing.
“We celebrate kids when we pay attention to them, not when they perform, but simply because they exist. Jesus did that. He saw the forgotten ones. He listened when others ignored. He called them near, healed them, and delighted in their praise.”
This, she says, is the essence of celebrating kids:
Know them — learn what makes them unique.
Name them — affirm their God-given identity.
Nurture them — teach them values and truth they can carry forward.
It’s not about waiting until they “earn” your attention; it’s about loving them as they are.
“If children don’t feel valued, nothing else matters,” Dr. Kathy says. “We don’t want them to feel more important than others, but we do want them to know they matter.”
Building the House That Matters
Wayne closes the conversation with a passage from Haggai 1, where God challenges His people for prioritizing their own homes over His temple:
“You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
The people delayed rebuilding God’s house until their finances stabilized — and never found the security they were chasing. Wayne draws the parallel clearly:
“Parenting is temple work. It’s raising image-bearers who reflect God’s glory. Waiting for perfect financial security before obeying God can become an endless cycle.”
He reminds listeners that God’s blessings often follow obedience, not the other way around. Raising children isn’t about filling a house with things — it’s about filling the world with worshipers.
Celebrating Kids: A Daily Choice
Whether you have children or not, you can still celebrate kids. You celebrate them when you:
Stop to listen instead of rushing past.
Cheer their questions instead of shushing their curiosity.
Teach them to serve, give, and notice others.
Tell them they are seen, loved, and designed with purpose.
That’s what Jesus did, and still does, and what drives the mission of Celebrate Kids Inc..
Engage the 8 Great Smarts: Ways to Celebrate Kids
Dr. Kathy reminds us that every child is smart, just in different ways. Parents can use the 8 Great Smarts to celebrate their kids’ design while shaping their hearts:
Word Smart: Write encouragement notes or read Proverbs together.
Logic Smart: Talk about stewardship and how God provides in unexpected ways.
Picture Smart: Create family vision boards about your hopes and prayers.
Music Smart: Sing worship songs that remind kids of God’s provision.
Body Smart: Serve together — rake leaves for a neighbor or bake cookies for someone in need.
People Smart: Invite other families over for shared meals and laughter.
Self Smart: Encourage journaling prayers about gratitude and purpose.
Nature Smart: Go outside and talk about God’s design in creation — and how His care extends to every living thing, including them.
Remember: Our culture may measure success in dollars and square footage, but God measures it in discipleship and delight.
“Children feel important when they are known,” Dr. Kathy says. “And when they feel known and valued, everything else can grow.”
Parenting isn’t about perfection, it’s about partnership with the One who still calls children close. When you celebrate kids, you join Jesus in the sacred work of restoring wonder, value, and life to a world that’s forgotten how to see them.