Grandmother’s Prayer for July 23rd

Lord, I have stood aside more often than I have stood up. There was the young pastor's wife, whom they talked about after the church split, and I let the gossip pass because she was new. There was the Black family who moved in down the street, and I said nothing when the neighbors were cold. There was a cashier at the store last week, a man was rude to, and I walked past her in the parking lot without a word. Father, I have years of silence to repent of. I do not need one more day of it. Today, put me in the moment where staying quiet would be easy, and give me the small word that puts me on the right side. It does not have to be a speech. It only has to be enough to say: I was not one of them. Make me brave in a quiet kitchen way. The way Walter was, with just a few words and a steady look that other people trusted. Make me that kind of brave today. Amen.