The tricky topics

Lately my 3 year old (soon to be 4), has been making massive inquiries into the world around him.  His been asking a lot of spiritual questions, which have been a joy to discuss with him.  He is also asking things like, "where do babies come from?" 

This latter type of question can be a bit tongue-tying.  For that reason I am so glad for the advice of a good friend of my wife's.  She said that when her children started to need some explanations about sex and reproduction, she found it best to give concise answers to their small questions, one by one.  She said this was better than trying to disclose the whole topic in one sitting, which can overwhelm the child (and the parent!)  So that is how we are proceeding with our little boy and his interesting inquiries. 

Today two of my staff began to ask some interesting spiritual questions.  This also could have been a tongue-tying moment, but for different reasons than my example above.  Spiritual questions are tricky in this place, and perhaps especially at this time.  Conservative religious sentiment is rising, as is criticism of foreigners here.  This is not a time or place to proclaim too loudly your beliefs or differences from the order here.  In this context, genuine religious questions and discussions are seldom.  So when my staff started asking questions today, it took me a minute to find my bearing and decide where to go with their questions.  In that moment, I thought to myself, "okay, just like talking with my 3 year old about sex, I cannot give them more answers than they are ready for, I only need to address their questions one at a time.”

I cannot detail for you all that we discussed, but I will tell you what point I decided to stick to.  I kept my answers and thus their follow-up questions around the point that there was nothing I could do to save myself, it was only Christ that could save me.  As I found out, there is a lot that can be said around this point, if the questions keep bringing it out.  After a while however, something distracted us and we went on to discussing irrigation flow rates, or panning for gold, or something like that. 

Ironically enough, important discussions with my son are just like this; he comes with keen interest and we talk for a few minutes before he drifts off to the next thing.  The funny thing is, at random times, he will remember the previous questions, and with Interest we will pick up right where we left off.  In this way it takes weeks to discuss something I could give him a 15-minute lecture on.  I'm more than okay with that though, because I have lots and lots of weeks to spend with my son, and I want him to learn from me in the way that serves his little heart and mind the best.

Time will tell, but right now I would not be surprised if the discussion started today by my staff would soon come up again.  I have plenty of time here as well, and step-by-step is fine with me.