I Have a Dream...

My book club has been reading The Help this time around and, while I mostly laugh and drink in the culture and characters of the book, it did make me reflect a little more about what it must have been like in a segregated time period.  Today, of course, marks the 50th anniversary of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech and everyone is talking about it.  I grew up in the west in the 80's - VERY far from where segregation was mainstream in both state and time.  The African-American ethnicity were a minority to say the least.  Usually if you saw a black person you were in awe.  They were few and far between growing up.  That being said, I never would have thought to think I was any better than them or anyone for that matter.  To be honest, I have found it very hard to understand why we couldn't all get along anyway.  If you treat someone nice, you would think they would treat you nice as well.  Funny world we live in.

The things we teach our children are so important for them and their future.  Too many times do I see incidents in the news or around me where I'm thinking how completely opposite that behavior is to what a mother or father would be teaching their child to do.  I tell my son, "we don't hit" or "we don't take something that's not ours" or "we share our snacks or toys with others."  These simple habits and behaviors we try to reinforce in our children and even had reinforced in our own childhoods have somehow, by some, get tossed aside once teenage/adulthood hits.  I still believe the scripture, "Train up a child the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6) and will do everything in my power to teach my children who they are, what their purpose here is, and how to become who they are meant to be.  I think too many of us forget that and are distracted by all the evil and hate that go on in the world.  

I think Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision went even further than simply blacks and whites achieving equality.  I think it had a lot to do with how we treat everyone around us regardless of our race, color, or status.  We need to stop worrying so much about what someone else has that we don't, and start worrying about what we do have and how to work to make more of ourselves so we can help others do the same.  50 years later after his infamous speech, I know a lot of headway has been made in the equality of blacks and whites.  There still is much to be done in terms of forming a real brotherhood with each other, but it all starts with us - as individuals, but more importantly in our families.  I hope that in being the mother I've found myself to be that my children can appreciate the freedoms we enjoy and count all the blessings they have been given while working hard to show their gratitude for it and share that with others.  In short, I want my children to always stand up for what is right and DO what is right as our Savior has always done for us.  That is my dream and I'm working hard to make it a reality.