One incident that brought great pride and joy to my heart occurred several days into the week at Southwood Luthern Camp. As I entered her classroom, I immediately noticed a girl from our program sulking in the corner. At a moment we had to ourselves, I asked her what was wrong. She pointed to a little blonde girl wearing a sparkly pink t-shirt and stylish Gap cap.
"She don't like
I wasn't sure how to respond to this, being white, I can only imagine the pain of feeling that kind of discrimination, so I gave her the best advice I could give.
"You know what? Maybe you're right, maybe she doesn't have many black friends, but do you know that you could change that? All you have to do is show her how nice you can be." I was a bit surprised to see this girl looking at me sincerely, straight in the eye. She nodded as I continued. "If you think someone doesn't like you, just be nice to them, then you know that they have no reason to dislike you." I gave her a squeeze on the shoulder and sent her back in the classroom, hoping my elementary advice would have some impact on her. I said a quick prayer for her, that she would be able to use her strong personality to encourage rather than intimidate.
Later that afternoon I heard her talking to the little blonde girl, "Hey! Do you want to sit by me? Cute hat!" I sat back and watched the two engage in a positive conversation about the craft they'd made in class. In all honesty, I'd never seen her so outgoing and friendly to another student, much less someone who she thought didn't like her! I couldn't help but smile as the little girl looked taken aback by her compliments and the all important, female ritualistic invitation to the bathroom. Although the little girl didn't respond as positively as one would hope to her invitation, I couldn't wait to pull her aside and tell her how absolutely proud I was of her. As we stood in the hallway, I gave her a huge hug and held her hand. I asked her how it felt to "just be nice". She replied with a shy smile, as if she even surprised herself, and said "It feels good!” The rest of the week I noticed her efforts to befriend her classmate and I thanked the Lord for His loving-kindness, His love for this and how good it feels "just being nice".
