My heart is heavy and my conscious is guilty.
I am 27 years old and for the first time in all those 27 years I am truly educating myself on racism. Ashamed doesn’t even begin to cover how I feel. Over the past couple of days I have been reaching out to my black friends and seeing what I can do to help. I was expecting messages filled with various petitions to sign and causes to donate to.
Do you want to know what I got?
“Thank you for reaching out” “Honestly this means a lot that you would reach out”
“It means the world that you would reach out”
It wasn’t a wrong response to have.
It was heartbreaking. All I did was send a message and ask what I could do and let them know I was praying for them and they were just grateful that I would reach out.
THAT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME.
Reaching out is the easy part. Reaching out takes 5 seconds.
Reaching out to them didn’t feel like even a drop in the bucket, but to them if felt like they were heard. As I research and fully dive into the stories of systematic racism and discrimination I am brought to tears and the only place I know to turn for comfort is to God.
The past few mornings I have spent my time in prayer over our nation and our black community.
I challenge you to do something with me.
Pray that God would break your heart for his people.
Pray that he would allow you to have empathy so strongly that you would be devastated. I’ll admit its hard. I’ll admit its uncomfortable. It should be.
This pain and discomfort is molehill compared to the mountain of pain and discomfort our black community faces on a daily basis. I will continue to pray for our nation as a whole. I pray that peaceful protests continue to make an impact and that voices that have been silenced for generations are heard. I pray that even though I am just one person that you, our black community can feel that love that I have for you. The love that God has for you. My heart is broken and I for that I am grateful.
It means that God is answering my prayers and working in me to be the change that is so desperately needed. In future blogs I would love to share stories from out black community.
Topics will include, but not limited to:
How racism has affected me. (in your day to day life)
The first time I experienced racism
Black business owners (what do you do and how can we support you)
If you or someone you know has a story to please reach out to me on the website with these steps. Go to lifewiththefranklins.com
Click “Let’s Chat”
Fill out the form and hit next.
Check “be a guest on the blog”
Submit
Once these steps are completed I will reach out to you.
Here are a few links to websites and articles that I have read, I will continue to post new ones as I post blogs.
Don't forget to subscribe so you can stay up to date with the blog.
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