In recent years, two of my sons have opened Roth IRA accounts as they’ve grown to understand the power of compound interest. Compound interest is what happens when your interest earns interest… slow, steady growth that adds up to far more than you’d expect.
But here’s something you might not have thought about. Compound interest isn’t just a financial principle, it’s a biblical one, true in nearly every area of life, including the family. It’s really just another name for the biblical principle of sowing and reaping:
- Early investments matter, and it’s hard to make up for lost time
- You always harvest later than when you sow
- You reap in proportion to what you sow (sparingly or bountifully)
- You always reap more than what you sow (a stalk of corn is far larger than the seed it started from—nature’s version of compound interest)
Galatians 6:7 — “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
2 Corinthians 9:6 — “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.”
So what could compound interest look like in your home? Here’s where sowing and reaping gets practical.
Cleaning:
Let’s start somewhere unexpected… your living room floor.
- 5-Minute Pickups. Instead of designating one big cleaning day each week, what could change if you scheduled a 5-minute daily family pickup before supper or before bed? Just five minutes provides a valuable reset for the next day, makes weekend cleanup a breeze, and simplifies daily life. Small deposits, big returns.
- “Don’t put it down, put it away.” This rule, lived out consistently, has the potential to change a lot in your home. Teaching our kids to “reset the room” after each use helps them take responsibility for their messes rather than treating the house like a hotel stay with a housekeeper. Instead of walking in the front door, dropping their stuff on the floor or table, and leaving it there until it fossilizes, “Don’t put it down, put it away” builds the habit of actually putting it away.
Health:
- Lifestyle Choices. Pizza, soda, and ice cream all have their rightful place as specialties on the family menu (Friday nights work well for us). But when those things shift from special to daily, they stop being special, and they create long-term health problems for our kids that may not show up for years. Too much sugar in our kids’ diets can also work against our parenting efforts, making our jobs unnecessarily harder (believe me, sugared-up or hangry toddlers are not a myth). The compound interest of health happens when we see the bigger picture of how our daily choices shape our kids’ habits, moods, and future selves.
Spiritual:
- Daily Drops. Godly parenting is made up of a million small, everyday, often unnoticed moments. Don’t underestimate the slow “leaky faucet” drops that fill up the bucket of your child’s heart. Whether it’s morning, mealtime, or bedtime prayer… whether it’s pointing their attention to God’s goodness in the small things of everyday life… or whether it’s singing worship music in the car, sitting on the couch with an open Bible or story book, or memorizing a verse of Scripture together, don’t underestimate the compound-interest power of small daily drops and decisions over time.
There are countless other places this principle applies, but hopefully these give you a running start.
So here’s the question: What’s ONE way this week you could put the compound-interest power of sowing and reaping to work in your family’s favor?
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Wanting more? A few more small, consistent habits that compound over time in a family:
- Say “I love you” before you walk out the door. Every time. It costs nothing and builds something priceless.
- One family meal a day, phones away. Doesn’t have to be dinner, just one meal where everyone’s actually present.
- A consistent bedtime routine. Even a two-minute check-in each night adds up to hundreds of connection points a year.
- Follow through on what you say. Consequences you promise but don’t enforce are withdrawals, not deposits.
- One specific compliment a day. Not just “good job,” but something specific like, “I noticed how patient you were with your sister today.”
Don’t underestimate the secret power of small, ordinary, repeatable habits in your home.
