Telling the kids

As you may expect, Anne and I were a little nervous about telling our girls about our upcoming move. This was the first big family decision that we have made since they were old enough to have an opinion about it. We decided to tell them as soon as we arrived back in Tampa. All of us gathered in the living room and I told them that we had to have a family meeting. They knew that we had just come home from Frisco, and they knew about the church since we had been there on a family vacation before. I started out by saying that the church in Texas had really been growing, and that they needed another pastor on staff, and that they had asked me to join them. I told them that their mom and I had been praying about it, and that we felt that this was what we were supposed to do, and that we were going to be moving to Texas. It seemed like they immediately understood what that meant, and how that impacted all of us, and we all became a bit emotional. After a few minutes of crying together, they began to ask questions about the new church, the new town, the new house. One question they had about the church was, Did it have a children's ministry? We explained to them that that was very important to us too, and that we had even sat in the children's service. We told them that even though it wasn't going to be the same, we knew they would like it. Scott, the children's pastor there, had given us t-shirts with their church's kids ministry logo on it for the girls. I didn't know how they would respond to them, but they have ended up wearing them all the time. I think it's been kind of a "connection point" for them. When the time came that they could tell their friends at school, Morgan wore her shirt and explained that this was her new children's ministry. I have been amazed at how resilient the girls have been. In fact, after our family meeting that night, we decided to do our devotions together. The girls brought their devotional books out and shared ones that they felt applied to our situation. One read a page about "worry." Another read about being "sad". It was a special night. Anne and I commented to each other that it was so great to see our children applying the bible to their own lives in the proper context. So far, they are excited about the move and the new possibilities. I'm sure that there will also be times of sadness as we get closer to leaving, but their positive reaction has been a real relief.