Eyes that See

“They don’t know yet how lucky they are,” is the thought running through my head as I look around the round table where my kids are sitting.

In a cave. In Mexico.

To our left, a mariachi band plays, setting the tone for the evening. People smile and sway to the music while waiters stop by our table to offer different cuts of meat. We’re eating dinner in a dimly lit cave, and if ever there was an adventure I hoped our kids wouldn’t forget, this is it.

For the first time, we’ve introduced our kids to a new country. They’ve each gotten their first passport stamp, walked through customs, and felt the summer sun on their faces as we crossed the border. They’re experiencing a new place, a new culture, and a different way of life. As much as I hope this experience matters to them, I’m also aware of how much it matters to me.

My top three values as a parent are to point my kids to Jesus, raise kind humans who are a light to the world, and show them how big and beautiful the world is. I want them to taste and see different cultures. I want to give them opportunities to see life from a different vantage point, to think beyond what’s familiar, and to discover ways of living that look different from their own. I also hope to plant in them a spirit of adventure and whimsy, because those are the things that make life so much fun!

It’s not lost on me that being able to give my kids these experiences means I’ve won the lottery in life. We are incredibly blessed to experience Mexico together, and I know that. Still, I can’t help but think that my kids don’t yet understand how lucky they are to be here, surrounded by each other and two loving parents who work hard to create these opportunities.

But we don’t have to travel to Mexico to give our kids these experiences.

We can take them down the road to our community soup kitchen, out to an Amish community, or to a church whose traditions and practices look different from our own all just down the road from where we live.

Different ways of life are all around us. I want to teach my kids to have eyes that see them and minds that are open to them. I want them to understand that the way we live isn’t the only way to live, and that there is so much to learn when we step outside what we know.

After all, we live in a melting pot of cultures and communities, with the opportunity to encounter people whose lives, traditions, and perspectives differ from ours. What a gift it is to raise our kids in a world where we can learn from one another.

And while I hope my kids will one day look back on that dinner in a cave in Mexico and realize just how lucky they were, I hope they learn something even more valuable along the way: that the world is bigger than their own little corner of it, and that there is beauty in being willing to see it.

As we step into a season of gratitude and giving, I encourage you, dear reader, to look beyond the four walls that surround you every day and dare to step into someone else’s world. Challenge your children to do the same. Let’s expand our vision, stretch our minds, and lay our heads down at night with grateful hearts, knowing how much beauty there is to experience when we dare to look beyond what we know.

-by Destini McPherson