One of my most dreaded moments as a mother has not yet arrived yet.  Oh I already know what it is and I already know it will one day be here.  It is not a matter of it it will happen, it's a matter of when it will happen.  I pray that God will give me the words to speak truth, grace and healing towards it as well.

One day my black children will ask the question “why?”.  They won't get it.  They will not believe what they are hearing.  Could it be true that people that looked like them really had to use a different bathroom just because they were black.

One day they'll ask how people could not like someone just because of the color of their skin.  How could it be.  As children they are not looked upon as they are different.  It hasn't happened yet.  Oh but it will.  There are still people out there that do not see people as equal.  They might not even know that they don't see people as equal.  Hatred and discrimination is well hidden in their hearts and minds.  So well hidden that they don't even see it.  It will happen when my children are older.  Those same people that thought they were so cute as kids will see them differently.  You think I'm crazy.  Oh no, you just wait.

We talk a lot around here about God making people different.  How would the world be if everyone looked the same.  We see differences in not only skin, but also in hair, eyes, teeth, shape and height.  The list of differences between us all could go on for a long time.  God is creative and we like to express that to our children.  He picked out the perfect color for all of us.

I'm still processing one of the saddest conversations I have yet to have with Amos.  The time he cried and told me he just wished his skin was white like daddy's.  My heart literally broke into a million pieces.  He's six.  He notices he's different and in his heart and mind it doesn't feel right.  I pray my words were right.  I pray I showered him with love and acceptance.  I asked him why he felt this.  I allowed him to express his thoughts.  I didn't try and make him feel something he wasn't.  I didn't flippantly dismiss this feeling.  I allowed him to be heard.  I also shared with him that we serve a perfect God with a perfect plan and that all along he knew Amos would be just the right way with skin the color he gave him.  That God was the one that created him.  He molded him in HIS image.  He knit him together.  He has a huge plan for him and his life.  I still pray that my words went to his soul and that God will use them to the best he can, because sometimes I feel as though my words are all jumbled when they exit my mouth!!!

I just finished reading THE HELP and I must say it was one of the best books I've ever read.  My summer reading has been saturated with stories of people that are black overcoming huge obstacles in their lives.  LITTLE BEE, TINY SUNBIRDS FAR AWAY and now THE HELP have made me think so much about my life, the life of my children (all of them), and how I view the world.

I highly encourage you to read this book as quickly as you can.  Go get it now and soak up the story.  Meet these characters and fall in love with each one of them.  The movie comes out soon and I can't wait for this story to be told to even more people.  Our country has been through hell with racial issues and let me tell in case you believe that that hell is behind us, it is not.  Ask any person that is black (or any color besides white for that matter) and you will soon find out the hell is not gone.  It might be easier to be black in this country, but it is still not as easy as it is to be white.

I pray that when these questions rise that I will be able to adequately portray to my kids the sadness that this brings me.  I will use the gospel to show them how sin entered our world and it is not the way that God intended, but he sent his son Jesus to make right and that one day he will come back for his people and he will conquer evil.  I will show them people that have stood up in this world and made a difference.  For thousands of years people have been persecuted for different things and not just skin color.  While people are being persecuted there are also those that are standing with them proclaiming this is not right.  I want to be one of those.  I want my kids to be one of those.  (I'm not just talking about racial issues, I'm talking about all issues here.)

Here are a few of my man favorite quotes form the book ….

“I used to believe in em (lines). I don't anymore. They in our heads. Lines between black and white ain't there neither. Some folks just made those up, long time ago. And that go for the white trash and the so-ciety ladies too.”
“I want to yell so loud that Baby Girl can hear me that dirty ain't a color, disease ain't the Negro side a town. I want to stop that moment from coming–and it come in ever white child's life–when they start to think that colored folks ain't as good as whites.”
I loved this book so much and fell in love with the characters so much that when I viewed the trailer for the movie, tears fell down my face.  The strength that these women endured was so inspiring.  They literally put their lives on the line to stand up for what is right.  Oh my does that make my heart swell with pride for these women.  I know they are fictional in the book but there are people like this in real life.  People that stood up for what was not right and changed the world.

Jamie Ivey