3. Expose and experience.
I grew up listening to old-school R&B and ‘90s rap. I’m not condoning all of what I listened to, but it definitely gave me something to talk about with friends who didn’t look like me. My non-white friends resonated with this music because it was most often created by their culture and reflected much of their experience.
My wife and I allow our kids to experience a variety of music genres as well. Christian rap, contemporary Christian music, Gospel music, kids music and (appropriate!) secular songs are all on the playlist. My 5-year-old son and 2 1/2-year-old daughter can sing you a song off their Summit Church worship CD, a Lecrae rap song, a little Justin Timberlake and several Gospel songs. The coolest part, other than hearing them sing, is that they also know who sings the song, what they look like, and that the sounds of their songs come from their culture.
We also try to monitor the resources that our kids are exposed to when it comes to the Bible. Here’s a challenge for you. Open every single children’s Bible app, book, coloring page and whatever else you have. Does the depiction of Jesus and other Bible characters look…like you? Or do they look Middle Eastern? As a positive example, The Jesus Storybook Bible makes an attempt to portray Jesus with olive-toned skin and dark eyes.
Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself:
- Of all the songs, books, apps and everything else your child is exposed to, how much of it is written, sung or created by white artists?
- What percent of those Christian-based items depict characters (especially Jesus) as predominantly white figures?
The answers to these questions should be a good indicator of how heavily your children are exposed not only to multi-ethnicity, but to accurate biblical characterizations of those the Lord thought necessary to have in his written words as well. Simply put, the authors of the Bible were multi-ethnic (and none of them were white!). These experiences are paramount in showing our children what God is about when it comes to our unique, valuable differences.
4. Diversify your dinner table.
Without a doubt, diversifying our dinner table has been the most impactful piece of raising our children to know a Jesus that is about all nations, tribes and tongues. If you don’t have any family friends that look different than you, your family is missing out.
Now, to be clear, when I say, “dinner table,” I mean, “your life.” It’s helpful, of course, to literally have some other families join you for dinner. But your friendship can happen in a number of different contexts. Regardless of how it looks, these need to be real friends, not acquaintances you simply say hello to in the breakroom, but part of your daily discipleship—parents struggling through marriage, kids acting out in school, neighbors on your street. Intentionally pursue multi-ethnic relationships and your kids will see it.
Here’s the beauty about starting with relationship. Not only does this put our family in contact with people who look different, think differently and possibly dress differently. But these relationships put a face to the atrocities we see happening with race relations in today’s world. Which leads me to my last suggestion…
