Now that I am a mother to three almost grown children, when I look back at my childhood I am amazed and thankful for the way that my parents raised me. As a Baptist Minister it would have been really easy for my father to place everyone into two classes: the sinners and the believers.

I believe that he chose not to do this and chose rather to look at every single person he met as an individual. My parents taught me to accept everyone for who they are and to look for each person's individual beauty and talents. I have tried to pass this along to my own children in their upbringing as well as I feel it was one of the greatest gifts my parents could give me.

Last year one of my aunt's, my mothers sister, passed away. Unfortunately I am at that place in my life where it seems I am losing someone every few months. This particular aunt was a very loving aunt to me and was one of my favorites. At her funeral my father had tears slowly dripping down his now wrinkled face. When I asked him if he was ok, he whispered into my ear, «I am sad that your aunt has died without ever being able to accept her daughter.»

You see my aunt's daughter is gay. My aunt never could accept this fact, and never dealt with it for herself or for her relationship with her daughter.

I was so saddened by my father's words. His statement stays deep in my heart to this day. Even though I knew this to be the case of the relationship between my aunt and her daughter I had never taken it to heart until this moment. And even though I was raised not to be judgmental, this one statement now quickly comes to my mind when I am tempted to do so. I think how sad it would be, and what I would be missing, if I chose not to accept my friends and family for whom they are and instead quickly judged them for being something other than what I am.

My hope for you is that in reading this, the next time you meet someone different than yourself, you will hear a little voice inside of you that says, «What am I missing by not getting to know this person?» Because my parents always said, «Don't judge a book by its cover!»

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