What Does It Look Like? - Considerate Inclusion

What Does It Look Like? - Considerate Inclusion

We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now. —Martin Luther King Jr.

EVERY SATURDAY MORNING, Steve and I hop on our bikes for our ten-mile ride around White Rock Lake. The small city lake and park are a Dallas treasure. It’s a fabulous place. Lots of trees, picnic areas, running and biking trails, squirrels, ducks, sailboats, and people. Lots of people.

People in cars. People on foot. People with strollers. People on bikes. People on skates. Alone. Together. Sometimes with kids. Sometimes with dogs. Sometimes with dogs and kids and on skates. It’s a fabulous place.

Everyone is accepted—people in good moods and people who are fussy. The friendly people take the hateful ones in stride, and the cranky people (usually on fast bikes) somehow manage to pull every ounce of patience together in order to get around the lake without running over anyone.

I hear people speaking languages I’ve never heard, walking along in brightly colored sarongs and plastic flip-flops. The women are laughing. I don’t get the joke, but I get the joy. We smile at one another.

I smell fajitas being grilled as people celebrate the weekend with their families. They’re cheering, in Spanish, as a little fellow finally takes off on his two-wheeler for the first time. I remember the jubilation.

Although our native tongues and clothes are different, we’re not so far apart in what we value. A good joke. Laughing with our girlfriends. Encouraging our children. A sizzling fajita!

If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. (Matthew 5:46)

I want Ava to see that considerate inclusion is forgetting about what makes us different and remembering those things we have in common. And learning to love those who may not love us first.