As most of us celebrates the 4th of July and the beauty of it, there is a small population that has decided that they are going to sit in their small corners and pout. They have decided and I quote, "why should I as a woman of color celebrate July 4th..." I won't give this person the honors of having any more of their words take up space on my blog because, well their words aren't worthy. I'm sure you can see where that speech was going. If not let me give you a hint: towards slavery. Isn't it always. Anytime we have a day celebrating America some black person somewhere is going to stand up and remind the world of the deep dark past of America. It's bound to happen. I get it. I do. America has an ugly past. A really ugly past. But guess what, so do I and so do YOU. Let me paint a picture.
I have a past, as I am sure you do too. There are things I have done that I do not want anyone in this entire world to ever find out. Jesus knowing is enough to make me cry, if a human being ever found out I would probably want to die. Seriously. If you think really hard there is something or more than one thing you've done in your life that if it were ever exposed to the right somebody you would be completely mortified. If this doesn't fit you, I'm sure there's something you wouldn't want mom and dad to know you did. So as you think about that thing you've done in your past that you aren't that proud of, imagine finding the man/woman of your dreams and somehow that thing was exposed. S/he found out
that thing! We all say, hope, pray and believe in a true love that says they would accept you "flaws and all", right? We make songs about it, there are a multitude of "love/relationship guru's" on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook that have you believing that there is a love out there like that. Jesus is that Love. (SN: human love does exist like this. I have a boyfriend who accepts me flaws and all. He knows ALL my past, even
that thing and loves me still. The only advice I can give is seek God for the right man and then you can be sure you'll get him). Your true love found out your past and accepted you flaws and all, and during your relationship never did s/he bring up your past. Would you be surprised?? I'm sure you're probably shaking your head yes. If you had asked me this several years ago, I'd be shaking my head right along with you. But today I can say no. That's only because I'm currently in a relationship where my past is never brought up. As ugly as it is, when my boyfriend said he accepted me flaws and all, he really did. He isn't like the others that said he did but as soon as an opportune time presented itself my past was thrown in my face. We have all experienced that and we all know it hurts. We all know it hurts to trust someone, make yourself vulnerable to them and when it becomes beneficial to them they bring up your past. The past hurts. We are never proud of the mistakes we made in our past. The things we did then are done. In the heat of the argument how many times have you heard yourself yell, " WHAT'S DONE, IS DONE!!! THERE'S NOTHING I CAN DO ABOUT IT!!" Because the truth of the matter is what you did several years back can't be undone. It can't. No amount of tears, fighting, yelling, anger, cursing...nothing is going to fix what has already been done.. What is done is done. The question now remains, can they accept you for what you did or can't they.
You might be asking, okay I get all of this relationship stuff but what does a relationship have to do with America? Good question. I will tell you. America made a mistake in the past. What is done is done. No amount of pouting or rioting, or bickering or hating is going to fix it. It's done. Are we going to expect different standards in our relationships but not for others? We want to be forgiven and loved for who we are, but we are going to hold America to their deep dark past until we just can't do it any longer. Really?! Is that really how we want to do things. Slavery happened. It's ugly. Really, really, really ugly. Nothing is going to take that history away. Nothing can fix it. Nothing can make it go away. It hurts. It's an embarrassing history of America. Nothing is going to make what has already happened go away. (**note: for those who don't know slavery is actually still happening currently RIGHT NOW in our world) Can we just acknowledge America's past, like our own, is not pretty. As we expect to find someone to embrace us flaws and all, embrace America, the land of the Free. FLAWS and ALL!
