Why I teach my children to never be ashamed of who they are

I honestly was not planning on writing something like this online for a few years now. But here we are. The ugliness of racism and hatred and homegrown terrorism has made its way into the forefront of our news, homes and our hearts. It’s when children of all colors see these things and something changes in their hearts. THOSE people did this. THOSE people caused this to happen. I will never be like THEM. THEY hate us, THEY keep us down. Then you have children like my own, whose parents looked beyond color and culture and married anyway.

What do we tell them? When do they get to a point (which will happen) where they feel that society is telling them they must identify with one or the other? That they MUST choose.

We start now, we tell them who they are. For my half white children, their blackness doesn’t make them less, or their whiteness makes them superior to those around them. For my half black children, their whiteness does not make them less and their blackness does not make them superior to those around them. Their skin tone, their bloodline, or their culture does not make them the enemy. The parts of their family who were sold from their home and survived years of slavery makes them survivors. The parts of their family who left their home country to make a better life for themselves in America makes them innovators.

My children, your children, all of us- we are not better or worse because of the color of our skin. We do not grow closer to God because we hate those who are different than us and claim superiority. On the contrary, we grow further away from Our Heavenly Father when we have the audacity to believe that we are better than everyone else in his creation.  If we claim to do ANYTHING in the name of Jesus which is NOT what He said to do is nothing but a lie and makes Jesus be something He is not to those who do not know Him.

What does Jesus have to do with my kids? They were created to be more than what a sinful world and corrupt society tell them to. They will be men (and soon a woman) of integrity, honor and stand for what is right. They will show the light of God to all around them. They are told daily how loved and special they are. They are told daily that Jesus loves them and there is nothing in this world that will take them away from the Love of Christ. Their ethnicity is not something they are to be ashamed of…ever. The bloodline they come from in all by the design of The Father.

Color should never divide us. Ever. A question that has plagued us for ages, Why do we as a people feel the need to define those by only what we see as opposed to celebrating our differences? Right now, we have the gift of erasing that barrier within our own children.