Be Love
Tomorrow we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A great resource for information about Dr. King and his work is the website of The King Center, the organization dedicated to continuing where he left off. While you are there, reading about ways to be of service, consider taking the “Be Love” pledge.
The King Center’s strategic theme for this year is “Cultivating a Beloved Community Mindset to Transform Unjust Systems.” Here at Desert Mission, we cultivate community every day, and the concept “being love” is definitely one we can understand. But what does it mean to take the pledge?
Check out the words of the “Be Love" Youth Pledge, which uses very clear and accessible language:
3 Things are True:
( 1 )
Hate and unfairness in our world has to stop
( 2 )
I pledge to help make the world a better place
( 3 )
The choice is mine to do nothing or stand up for what is right
Starting today, I make the personal choice to do something and BE LOVE.
I pledge to let my words and actions show love.
I pledge to treat people like they matter.
I pledge to Kindly remind everyone that they should lead with love.
I pledge to focus on changing the things that are wrong,
not hurting the people who are doing wrong things.
I pledge to help bring people together and celebrate our differences.
I pledge to be courageous and caring while acting with love
to ensure others are not being harmed.
I pledge to always do and say what is right.
By signing this pledge, I’m helping to create what
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called
The Beloved Community.
Agreeing with the words of the pledge is a start, but it’s harder to turn those words into action. So after you’ve read the pledge and talked about what it means, choose a few of the items from the pledge and work together to make a list of 2 or 3 concrete things your kids can do to live up to them. For example, “I pledge to treat people like they matter” can look like playing with someone who is alone at recess, or smiling at someone who looks sad, or introducing oneself to a few extra people after church, especially if they are new to Desert Mission.
Standing up for justice and equity may feel a little more daunting if you’re an adult, so take the time to make your own list as well. As part of your pledge to treat people like they matter, you might decide to become active in a cause you believe in, or to approach someone who irritates you with love rather than impatience, or to interrupt speech or behavior that dehumanizes others even if it makes you uncomfortable to speak up.
We hope the connection between “being love” and Desert Mission’s objective of “becoming the best of who God created us to be” is fairly clear. It might be fun to draw an even stronger line between the pledge and the teachings of the Bible. Your family can go through the pledge line by line and come up with places in the Bible where you see Jesus doing things like reminding everyone to lead with love, or celebrating differences. You’ll definitely find some good connections to the “beloved community” in the Parable of the Good Samaritan!
The more people who pledge to be love, the closer we’ll get to fulfilling Dr. King’s vision of the beloved community. What is something you plan to do to fulfill your pledge? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
