I’m a mom to a toddler. She is a Turkish-Euro-American mutt with red hair and hazel eyes. She’s fair-skinned, middle-class, energetic, beautiful, and intelligent. She was born with pretty much everything she needs to have favor in our culture. But she needs my help to build one of the things she needs most to be accomplished in Heaven’s culture.

I want her to have empathy for those who are not like her.

Not like her in skin or hair or eye color.

Not like her in ethnicity.

Not like her in economic level.

Not like her in physical ability.

Not like her in mental or emotional ability.

Not like her in language.

But when I look around me, I mostly see children from similar families as my own. That means I have to create opportunities to be exposed to children with disabilities, of different ethnicities and backgrounds, who don’t speak English, or live in America.

Because empathy for others starts with exposure at a young age. It starts with books, songs, videos, and dolls; it continues on the playground, with play mates, and in travel.

Empathy starts with exposure.

This video from an inclusive Catholic School reminds me the value of exposure in building empathy for all people, who are created in the valuable image of God.