The way a mind works

Tonight at bedtime Amelia and Gabriel decided to sleep in the same bed together. Gabriel got a twin bed a few weeks ago and we're all having fun snuggling on his bed while we read stories and say prayers at night. Tonight Amelia and Gabriel just thought it sounded good for her to stay put. I just went to check on them and Gabe is the only one in his bed, so I went to check on Amelia and she is blissfully sleeping in her own room. Garrett and I aren't sure when she transferred, but we have fun imagining her stumbling drowsily through the hallway to her own bed. Sleepy kids are so dang cute.

Other cute things include my conversation with Abigail last night at the tail end of dinner when she and I were the only ones left at the table.

Abigail: [pointing at the wall] What's that?

Mommy: It's called a thermostat. It regulates the temperature in the house. So if we set it at 70 and the temperature goes below 70, the thermostat makes the heat come on and warm the house back up.

Abigail: [Thinks for a minute] So is that a miracle?

Mommy: Kind of sounds like one, doesn't it?

The kids are asking great questions these days. We talk a lot about Jesus and I can tell they are trying to wrap their minds around the trinity and Jesus' death and resurrection. Why did people hate Jesus? Why did they want him to die? How did God raise him from the dead? If God and Jesus are one, did God die on the cross too? I love their questions and listening to them make sense of what they hear and learn. Today we were reading a story together and there was a picture of a group of people. Several of the people were black and a few more were white. Amelia pointed it out and she and Abigail and I had a great conversation about race and the differences that God made. Why is their skin dark and our skin is light? Because God made us that way? Yes, He did. But we talked not only about God's ability to make things different, but His wisdom in doing so--the beauty He made in creating people of all different shapes and sizes and colors and how He loves them all equally. How we should love and respect them all equally as well.

I found the conversation intriguing since I read the book Nurture Shock by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman a couple months ago (a fantastic book--a must read for all parents and a fascinating read for everyone else) and there is a chapter on talking with children about race and how modern efforts at promoting diversity through increasing people's exposure to varying races, ethnic groups, etc falls short of its presumed desired effect of making people more tolerant and accepting and inclusive of different races. Exposure itself does not increase one's esteem for other races--we need to talk about race and instill in our kids the values of equality and value in things different than ourselves. The book spoke about the fact that white people speak the least about race, presumably in an effort to make their kids think that everyone is the same and race doesn't matter. But kids aren't blind--they see the differences right in front of them and clearly race does matter, at the very least in that it has a significant impact on how a person looks. To a four year old, doesn't that mean quite a lot? If we want our kids to actually believe in equality of the races, we need to talk about equality of the races. We need to not just put them in a classroom with a few black or hispanic or Indian children in attendance; we need to talk about the fact that those differences are there, but they are to be respected and honored, not used to make value judgments.

Anyway, I'm not sure how I got onto this topic from where I stared, except that my kids are bringing up some really great conversations these days and I love having the chance to hear their thoughts and offer them new ways of thinking about things.