Alveda King: For Thanksgiving, Carve the Turkey, Not Each Other With Our Words
The 2016 Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are at our doors. Yet so many Americans are still reeling with post-election shock. Several weeks ago, I realized that if God didn’t touch our hearts with healing, many of us in America would have miserable times around the tables of family and friends during the holidays. So I rolled up my sleeves and got on my knees, so to speak, and began to pray for America. Then I designed a holiday meme and began writing this message.
Somehow, America has elected a new president, Mr. Donald Trump. He needs our prayers, not our vitriol. The fussing and fuming is hurting our fragile relationships in our homes, our churches and in the marketplace. Throughout the 2016 debates and elections, many, including yours truly, have reminded America that with prayer, we can do as my Uncle MLK often said: ‘We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish as fools.’ My Uncle MLK, daddy (Rev. A. D. King) and grandfather Daddy King often taught from Acts 17:26: ‘He has made from one blood every nation of men to live on the entire face of the earth, having appointed fixed times and the boundaries of their habitation.”
This has been a difficult season for me, testing my faith and my love for God’s human family. From the onset of my publicly acknowledged support for the 2016 candidacy of first Dr. Ben Carson and then Mr. Donald Trump, I received angry criticism. So much of it, in fact, that if it hadn’t been for God’s mercy and forgiveness in my heart, for myself and for my loved ones—friends, family, church members and others—I would have fallen into sin by either striking back at those who don’t agree with me or at least trying to defend my position.
Never mind that during the elections I wrote many blogs and participated in many interviews explaining that in accord with Proverbs 3:5 and 1 Timothy 2:2, we Americans must trust God and not the human candidates to rescue our country from this present state of disharmony. People continued to flay each other with words, and in some cases (as with the violent protesters) with physical acts of anger. Yet God continues to shine through our 2 Chronicles 7:14 prayers, and we must continue to pray and trust that even in the midst of the Revelation days, God has not abandoned us.
During this 2016 winter holiday season, let those of us who will agree that for Thanksgiving, we will carve the turkey and not each other with our words. Then in repentance and agape love, for Christmas, let us celebrate the birth and gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Let agape love prevail.
