What My Kids Taught Me

What My Kids Taught Me

Again, my daily devotional has inspired a "look back." It's talking about grace...a word we throw around a lot as Christians. It says quoting Chuck Swindoll, "When others don't share your viewpoint, do you find ways to signal your disapproval? How about if somebody drives a newer car, lives in a nicer house, wears their hair a certain way and buys clothes you would never wear.......or (God forbid!) in a relationship you don't approve of? Can you 'live in harmony' with them, or do you pull out your 'comparison rule book'?.......Gladys Hunt writes: "Acceptance means you're valuable just as you are...You aren't forced into someone else's idea...You can talk about how you feel...and why...and someone really cares...you can try out ideas without being shot down...You can even express heretical thoughts and discuss them with intelligent questioning. You feel safe. No one will pronounce judgment...even though they don't agree with you. It doesn't mean you'll never be corrected...it simply means it's safe to be you." When you can say that, and mean it, you're growing in grace!" These words caused me to reflect back on a discussion I had with my youngest daughter when I discovered she was dating a black boy (or boys?). We took a walk around the block and I was sharing the reasons why I felt she shouldn't be dating a BLACK (from what I thought in my own heart was not "prejudice"). Her only response was, "You,re wrong!" Quite matter of fact for a 15 year old! As time went by, not only did she marry a black man, bear 3 beautiful children, so did her older sister...but before that happened...God went to a great deal of effort...and put me through a lot of pain to show me that she was "right" and I WAS "wrong." Since then I've learned...there is only one race....the human race. I know that I was feeling pressure, as a PARENT, to spare my children what society has, and still does, only to a lesser extent, consider outside the norm when people marry across racial "barriers."
One of the hardest crosses to bear...is on their children. A story my daughter shared that I pray has not scarred my oldest grandson is that when he was only about 3 years old and rang their neighbors doorbell to play, he was told "no blacks allowed." The little, sweet thing responded: "I'm not black; I'm brown!" Can you imagine! That beautiful, brown skin was MY baby, and I wanted to slug those people if I'd known who they were. So much for Christian love in my heart! GRACE...still has room to grow here and that was 17 years ago!