Today I am thankful for INNOCENCE.
I was watching the Princess and the Frog with 2 of my Littles yesterday. There was a scene with two adorable little girls. One was black, one was white. I asked Alakina which one was Princess Tiana and she pointed to the right side of the TV and said, “The girl with the green dress!”
(I couldn't get this picture any larger, but you get the idea.)
If you know anything about this movie, in the scene that I'm talking about, Princess Tiana is an adorable little black girl who's mother is the housekeeper for a very wealthy southern family and Tiana is playing with Lottie, the adorable, but very spoiled little white girl who's family is very wealthy (did that make sense??) Both litle girls are illustrated beautifully. Lottie is wearing a lovely pink princess dress and and Tiana is wearing just a cute little plain green dress.
She ALWAYS wants to be one of the characters in a movie. So I asked her, "Wouldn't you rather be Princess Lottie?" to which she simply said, "no" and when I asked her why, she said, "Cause Princess Tiana is nice, Nana, and she's pretty!"
It made me stop and realize, once again, how amazing kids are. They have NO barriers when they meet people. They have no concept of bias or prejudice, of black or white. They base beauty on character, not appearance. Perhaps their innocence shields them from the ugliness of these most harmful feelings!
In Matt 18:4 it says, "Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." I have always thought that I understood why the Lord tells us this, but yesterday I was reminded and shown the importance and power of that one scripture.
Alakina loves Tiana. She has NEVER mentioned that she is black! She mentioned several times that she wants to "be her" for Halloween. Now she wants a Princess and the Frog birthday party and she has made it very clear that SHE wants to be Princess Tiana at her party!
When are we going to wake up and listen to our children? They get it! They are probably THE most unconditional creatures upon the face of this earth. It's so sad to me that we (society) impose our restrictions of love upon them.
I watch my Littles. They are all unconditional with their love. They walk up to kids who are perfect strangers and start playing. They share whatever treat they have with a child they have never met. They will see someone in a store and say, "she's pretty" or "he's nice". They teach me everyday about the importance of "just loving". She has inspired me to strive harder to be more forgiving and tolerant and to "check" myself and make sure that any barriers of bias or prejudice are torn down.
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4 comments:
This post means many things to me...among them:
You are right, to see things through the eyes of a child is seeing things through the eyes of Jesus.
I love how you call them THE LITTLES.
This is the most precious post I have read in a long time! Thank you for challenging ME today.
Amen to that! I love the innocence of youth. Truly.
As you know, (I've mentioned it before) we live in an area of town where those who don't refer to it as the "United Nations". Many times people will ask us how we could "live like that". I am happy to tell them that we made the CHOICE to live where we live.
We feel so richly blessed by all those around us. They bring a sweetness and a richness from all walks of life and backgrounds. Different religions and all kinds of cultures.
Our children, who are the minority in their schools, are like your sweet little one.....they never notice the color of someone's skin. They refer to them only by "that person over there", or "that girl in the blue shirt".
We absolutely love it. This is exactly how we had hoped it would be with them growing up here and it's as it should be. We all are from the same family.
Thanks for this post!
Thank you for your "Thankful Thursday" posts I enjoy reading those! I am starting to do that myself.. :) keep blogging!
beautiful post!
:)
best,
Sylvia
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