please explain

the scene opens with the family sitting in the lounge room. waiting for the return of the hunter/gatherer (who had hunted for his car keys and was now gathering Red Rooster)
Out of lazy desperation, I switch the TV on to entertain the hungry brood in these long minutes.
Welcome into my home easy distraction. I love you.

On the TV this night was Meerkat Manor – you know the show that follows all the Meerkats and gives them names like Flower, Romeo and… I cant think of any more…
Anyway, they have names.
Its like Animal Planet meets Bold and the Beautiful.
And my daughter is enthralled by it. She is getting excited and wanting to know what these creatures are, where they live and can we get one. She then asks for an explanation, and I respond;

No honey, they are not all boys… those are their tails.
why are their tails standing up like that?
that’s just how they run…. with them sticking up like that
why don’t people have tails?
God didn’t make people with tails, so we mustn’t need one
why do meerkats need their tails?
i don’t know – maybe balance
why don’t you know?

The dialogue goes on. Most of it is Evie asking why and me, well, not really knowing why.
It is amazing how interesting the world is, and how we get to explain it to our kids.
There are a lot of questions they don’t ask though
Things they just accept because they don’t know any different.

My family, my beautiful children are going to have a difficult life in some ways. A lot of unknown things will rise before us, unsettled periods, 6months in Australia, 3years in mission… It might be a shock and a witness to my friends that we will pick up and move overseas to serve God.
It might be a witness to my neighbours that we do not value possessions, that we worship God and go to church.
But to my children, it will be all that they have ever known.
So… what I am saying… is that I need to take time to explain to my children.
I need to ground them in the truth of the bible – that they will rely on that throughout the turmoil of the mission lifestyle, I need to explain to them why it is important for us to go to church and why we do it.
I need to explain and remind my children that though they know no different - we are different.

I hope to always have dialogue with my children about our life.
About the decisions we as parents are making for them.
I pray that they understand and find joy in our sacrifices and blessings.
So that our faithfulness as parents will be transparent,
and effective in strengthening theirs.