race. who's 1st?

So I finished reading the book, I couldn't help but think I have read a lot of books in a similar genre.  And I have, "Secrets of the Ya-ya sisterhood", "The secret life of bees", and now the secret life of the "Help"  All about mid-century multiple black and white women dealing with civil rights in the south.  All of them feature abuse of some sort, usually at the hand of the oft' drunk husband.  Mother-daughter issues, mainly the mother trying to teach her daughter how to be a "proper" southern woman, but with the times changing the daughter sees her mother as only a figure constantly disapproving of her.  And the black woman finally finding a voice, and a new place as she slowly becomes more equal to her white employer, but really the only real hope she has is for her daughter, because they still live in the south. 

I feel very far removed from the situations these women are in geographically, socially, and by time.  But it really hasn't been that long.  Sometimes I think about how lucky I was just to be born a white woman in the U.S.  That alone gives me so much opportunity.  Opportunity times ten.  I did marry outside of my race.  It was scary and weird at first to consider myself dating a Mexican.  What would people think?  But it didn't really take that long for me to figure out that nobody cared, or nobody would say anything to my face.  Either way (and more importantly) I don't really care about all of that.

Sometimes I get mad at womens' lib and all that happened.  I have to be a good wife to my husband, mother to our children, housekeeper, and errand runner, but now I also get to go to work on top of it all.  But that is silly.  I do also like having an education, being paid the same as my male co-workers, and being treated like I have a brain, and my opinion matters.  It's OK to be smart and athletic.  I am smart right?  Sometimes I forget.  I'm having a hard time writing tonight.  I feel like there is a lot I should not say.  Even just to myself.

Dear Lord,

We lift up to you the poor and the marginalized.

We know that these are your cherished ones, that you are a God whose heart cries out for justice, that you are a God who longs to feed the hungry. We ask simply, Lord, that you give us your heart.

Fill us Lord with your compassion, give us your eyes to see, give us boldness and selflessness and wisdom, so that we too might cry out for justice and feed the hungry, so that your light might shine throughout the earth.

Lord, we especially pray for the children who are poor and marginalized, finding themselves in circumstances they did not choose and helpless to change. We lift up AIDS orphans, children of war, children suffering abuse and neglect, children smitten with malnutrition and disease, lacking education, housing or the most basic of life’s necessities. Might they somehow come to know the love of their Creator, who knows each hair on their head and collects their tears.

Lord, you know every wretched tale. Every overwhelming statistic, you know personally, one by one. Thank you that one day you will make all things right through your Son, Jesus Christ.

Until that day, let us be tireless in doing what is good and what is right unto the least of these, knowing the Father’s love for them.

Amen