I came across this sweet pic of my youngest at her preschool the other day and it caught me by surprise a little bit and it made my heart smile and kind of took my breath away (in a good way!)
She was reading and loving a sweet baby that didn’t “look” like her. It didn’t have blond curly hair and pail (super pale) skin.
And then it broke my heart too…
Because if we were real honest with ourselves, many times we tend to reach for the doll that looks most like us, or become friends with that sweet mama that is just like us – same parenting stage, same socioeconomic place, same social status…
Same…
But I wonder what we all miss out on when we are surrounded by the same…
I’m preparing to teach a class this weekend at my church, and in my studies, I came across this question that kinda stopped me in my tracks. (I can’t remember who asked it… forgive me!)
“Do you have any “unexpected” friendships?”
Friendships that don’t look like you, that challenge and stretch you, that you can invest in and learn from too?
And I had to pause… and think… and confess that I don’t have enough of those types of friendships in my world.
What about you? What about your friendships? Do they all look the same or do you have sweet friends who are “different” than you and challenge you to learn and grow and love more and deeper?
We want to raise little ones to love Jesus and love others and after Jesus of course, I believe it starts with baby dolls that are “different” , introducing cultures that are different, reading books from other places and about other races.
But we have to be the ones to expose them. We have to lead the way. We have to read them the stories, buy the baby dolls, befriend the neighbor who is different than us, cook the food that is “odd”, and talk about how God loves all people and so should we!
What are ways that we can raise our little ones to love all peoples, regardless if they are just like them or not? How can we raise little ones that pick the different baby doll to rock and cuddle with?
What unexpected friendship can you invest in?
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