Something we’ve been talking about a lot in our house is how to help when we see unfair treatment. Maybe you’ve felt treated unfairly before—like by an older brother or sister. Or maybe you’ve seen people treated unfairly because they look or seem different. One thing a lot of people are becoming more aware of right now is that there is a pattern of not-nice treatment of people of color, especially Black people. This isn’t fair, but it’s been happening for such a long time that many people do it without even realizing it.

This unfair treatment happens all over: in our schools, in sports, in our towns, and many other places, too. It is called systemic racism. But we don’t need to accept it as normal. So our family wanted to think about what we can do to change things. How we can pray. 

We thought of a rule that can help us. Not a rule like “Wash your hands before dinner.” This is actually a rule that people all over the world know and follow. It’s called the Golden Rule. It’s in every religion—sometimes said in different words, but always with the same meaning. In the Bible it’s written this way: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Luke 6:31, New International Version). Basically, this means that we should treat others the way we want them to treat us. Jesus taught us how to do this, and we can follow his example of treating others with love, understanding, fairness, and compassion.