Thank You Dr. King!! Happy MLK Day

My 10 year old daughter is becoming quite a writer.  She wants to enter a contest for Black History Month and she decided to write about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  I insisted that she first read a biography of his life.  She just emerged from her room crying and mad.  She got to the part of his life in 1956 where his house was bombed while his wife and child were inside.  Madison threw the book at me and said," I am not reading this anymore.  Those people are mean!! "  I went in and read the rest of the chapter to her.  It ended in the Supreme court ruling that bus segregation was illegal.  Madison and I then had a long talk about bravery.  I asked her why Dr. King did what he did.  She answered that he knew it was wrong not to treat all people with respect.  That we were all created by God and all deserved to be treated equally. (yeah, she is so smart!!) I then asked her if she thought Dr. King was scared when he was threatened and scared when his house was bombed.  She said, "Of course he was mom."  I then asked her why she thought he went on anyway.  Why didn't he stop?  We decided together that when you know God has called you to stand for what you know is right you must stand ; there is no other choice.  I then talked to Madison about how sometimes standing for what you know is right might cause you pain,embarrassment or even harm, yet it is often worth the risk.  Although Dr. King paid the ultimate price and so did his family, our nation is a better place because he became who he was born to be.  Then we prayed.  We thanked God for giving Dr. King the courageous spirit he had.  We thanked Him for Dr. King's family and asked God to bless them and give them peace as the world remembers him.  We know that they sacrificed too.  And then I prayed over Madison that God would make her courageous.  That he would pour his love upon her in away that no matter what obstacle she faced she would be brave enough to stand!!  I laid with her for awhile as she sobbed, really moved by the words she had read and sad that people were so cruel.  I am sorry that we still live in a world where man's inhumanity to man is so evident;however, I am thankful that we live in a world where when good men do something evil does not flourish!!  Thank you Dr. King for ridding this world of some evil.  May we not forget your sacrifice.  May we be brave enough to stand in the face of evil ourselves and not let it win!