Every time I turn on the news lately, all I see is more hurt, anger and sadness from our broken world. Recently, a large majority of it has been racist hate crimes or pointing fingers or victimizing someone because of the color of their skin. The "Black Lives Matter" movement has made headlines multiple times, but not in a positive way. This "black vs. white" war has been going on for centuries, but why do we still face it today? I thought we were supposed to overcome this sort of thing in the 21st century. Let's be real, our world is still broken and people are still not perfect. We can't expect perfection, but we should strive for progress.

As children, we were friends with anyone and everyone. We didn't see the color of someone's skin when we looked at them, we saw a human being. What changed? Were we raised to judge someone based on what they look like and how they talk, or are we born with this sinful instinct? Either way, it's way past time that we stop this madness and go back to giving everyone a fair chance by looking at them with the eyes of a child.

This is about more than skin color. It's not just "black vs. white," it's "love vs. hate." If we call ourselves Christians and believe that Jesus died on a cross for everyone, we should remember that He did not die for the whole world minus one people group. Jesus died for everyone of every race. If we are to follow His example, we cannot pick and choose who we love. We are called to love every single person: gay, straight, young, old, black, white, Muslim, Mormon, Christian, etc. Jesus didn't turn anyone away or exclude them from His love, so why should we? I get it, we're not perfect. But are the negative posts on social media about this issue actually doing anything other than stirring up more drama? We don't need to sit back and be quiet as we watch sin happen all around us, but we shouldn't fuel the fire or spread more hate. Approach it with love. Approach people with love. Stop arguing long enough to realize that those committing these hate crimes may not know and love the Lord. Do you honestly think that you can show them Jesus or lead them to the Lord if you're wagging your finger and yelling in their face? I know I wouldn't listen to anyone who treated me like that, regardless of the way I acted. My point is this: our skin may have different colors, but our souls do not. So to withhold God's love from someone simply because of their skin color (which by the way is not optional), is going to give us something to answer for when we stand at the foot of the throne.

Reality check: not all whites are racists and not all blacks are thugs. Stop categorizing people or blaming them for something that their "people" did to your "people" years ago. I am a young, white female and I do not support the actions of the KKK under any circumstances. It's not fair to blame people like me for someone else's actions, just because we have the same skin color. Likewise, it's not fair to show hate to an innocent black man just because someone of his color was recently on the news for a hate crime. Every individual is unique and deserves a chance. Are there groups of people that do classify themselves together and share the same hateful, racist mindset? Absolutely. But not everyone is a part of one of those groups.

The "Black Lives Matter' movement started as a result of black lives being taken by white cops. I'm not going to go into details or take sides there. However, this has escalated into people responding with "All Lives Matter."Personally, when I say all lives matter, I don't mean to discredit the fact that black lives matter, because they do.But so do white lives, Hispanic lives, Asian lives, Middle Eastern lives, etc. No one race is more important than another.God created every single person with an important reason, and I am not better than anyone else because we are all children of the Most High God. The sooner we can get it through our heads that life itself matters, the better. Life of all humans is fragile and important. It's time we start looking at people as living beings with souls and not as just another person of a certain race. Souls need saving and it's our job to do it, bottom line.

"Red and yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world."