Teach Your Children That All Lives Matter
This wasn’t what I had planned to blog about this week, but it seemed appropriate with the assassinations of Dallas policemen.
If you have paid any attention to the media or been on social media the past two days, you know about the shootings of Dallas police officers. For those of you that don’t know what happened, here is a quick overview.
On Thursday night, July 7, 2016, the Black Lives Matter organization held a peaceful march in Dallas to protest the killings of black men by white police officers across the country. The march started at 7pm and was to end around 9pm. Dallas police officers were working hard to protect the free speech rights of the protesters. Everything was going well until near the end of the march. Shots were fired by a sniper located at an elevated position, hitting 12 police officers and 2 civilians, killing 5 police officers. The gunman was identified as Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, who during the stand off told the negotiator that he acted alone, was a supporter of Black Lives Matter, and wanted to kill white officers. Micah Xavier was blown up by a police robot while holed up on the second level of a parking garage early Friday morning after negotiations with police broke down. I believe that the Black Lives Matter organization had nothing to do with this tragedy.
This attack on law enforcement was the largest since 9/11/2001. Our prayers go out to the families of those who were killed and those who were injured. For more details, visit a Fox News article about the event.
It seems that racial tensions are high in various parts of the country, leading some mentally unstable people to do inconceivable things, such as murdering others.
What should we as Christians make of all of this? How can we raise our children to love everyone, with no prejudices?
I think the solution is love. True love is not conditional and based on feelings, but rather a love that is mirrored after God’s love for us, which is unconditional, for everyone, and is a decision. God decided to love us unconditionally; even when we turn away from Him, sin against Him, and hate others.
God’s love is called Agape love. It reminds me of when I was a child in Sunday school and was taught the bible song with these words; “Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
We need to constantly remind our children that God loves every human being in the world, and He commands us to do the same. No matter what they look like, where they come from, what they do, what they say, what they believe, or even what god they worship. We need to love them even if they hate us or hurt us. We need to teach our children that God loves everyone else, just as much as He loves us, and therefore they are just as valuable as we are.
Our children need to see us constantly and consistently loving others as God loves them. Our actions are always observed by our children, and they mean much more than the words we speak. So we need to model God’s love for others, so our children will follow in our foot steps. If they see you do one thing, but say another, they will think you are being hypocritical and will not listen to your advice. When we as parents make a mistake, we need to acknowledge it, letting our children know we are not perfect, and that we seek forgiveness.
By our actions and with our instruction, our children will learn to love others as God loves them. Share the below verses with your children, and discuss what God’s Agape love truly means for us and everyone else on the planet.
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples. (John 13:34-35)
Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)
