Some years ago, I had this friend. She was beautiful. Every time I looked at her, I thought how pretty she was, and one day I decided to tell her. She thanked me and the days passed by one by one. Telling someone they were pretty back then didn’t come naturally to me. Maybe inside I was jealous over their beauty, or to me, it just seemed liked they might already know it.
However, my friend wasn’t overly thrilled with the fact that I had told her she was pretty. At the time I told her, I didn’t know that. It was actually a couple months later when she decided to talk with me about what I had told her.
She asked if I remembered telling her she was pretty and I said yes. She said, so you think I’m pretty for woman and again I said yes, and then she said, so why when you told me I was pretty, did you say I was pretty for a black woman? The obvious answer to me, was, well, because you’re black. The point she made was, she was a woman and the color of her skin shouldn’t have come into play. Ouch!!
I had injected color where color did not belong. Here I thought I had paid her a compliment, but instead I had insulted her. Needless to say, I was floored. I had no idea. I was of course apologetic but our friendship changed, and it was never quite the same. We were both in the military at the time, and eventually we lost touch, but her life lesson has remained.
We are all children of God, it doesn’t matter the color of our skin. God looks at our hearts, not our appearance. We are all uniquely and individually made and while our backgrounds are different, His message is clear, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”~~ John 13:34-35 (NIV)
Nowhere in that verse does it say love one another based on the color of their skin or that we are to live as colors. We are to live as children of God. And yet, everyday, we see life lived just the opposite. We verbally and physically attack one another based on what we are instead of treating each other out of the respect for who we are and who we are is His children. Just like watching our children fight, imagine how it must make God feel to see the way we fight amongst ourselves.
This video clip is circulating around the internet from the television show, “What would you do?”
I’ll just let you watch it and come to your own conclusion, but what a powerful message!! Some parts just brought tears to my eyes. How we treat each other is paramount to the testimony of our lives and what we are passing down to the next generation. We have to be the change.
Michael Jackson was an amazing artist. I don’t care what anyone says about him, that man was talented with a capital T. In November of 1991, the song he sang called “Black or White” was released and of course there was an awesome video made. Towards the end of this video, the actors seamlessly transform from men to women of all colors, shapes and sizes. So very cool they way they did this. Still amazes me. Best line in my opinion from that song; “I’m not gonna spend my life being a color.” You can watch the video here: Michael Jackson~~Black or White
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anything to define me. Not the number on a scale, not my past, not my age, not my job, not societal standards of wealth, or the color of my skin. Those “things” just put limits on who God says I am. God is limitless, and who am I to put a limit on an infinite God and what He will do in my life.
Ephesians 3:16-21 reads, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen.”
Did you really catch this promise~~ “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.”
His power is at work within us and can do more than we can imagine. Wrap your head around that and let Father God show you who you are. Don’t be defined by the things of this world, but look up and know that He is God.
Blessed to be Broken 