Princess Lucy: Ruby Bridges- "Guard Your Heart"

Proverbs 4:23 says, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." (NIV) As I continue to learn from this verse, I am reminded of Ruby Bridges. She is such a unique character in the history of our great nation.

Ruby was born September 8, 1954. The ruling for Brown vs. the Board of Education was also decided the year Ruby was born. Just six years later, Ruby was asked to something that required enormous courage. She was one of six African American students that tested (the previous year) and scored high enough to be elgible for enrollment in her neighborhood school. The William Frantz School, located in New Orleans, was Ruby's neighborhood school.

Integration was no easy task. Ruby was the only African American student chosen to integrate her neighborhood school. The only one! Can you imagine? US Marshals escorted Ruby along with her mother to school the first day. There were barricades and screaming mobs. Thankfully, little Ruby associated the baracades and loud mobs with Mardi Gras celebrations. However, her innocence was quickly stolen. No one at William Frantz School was prepared to teach Ruby on her first day. Most of the families had chosen to keep their students home in protest.

Barbara Henry from Boston was new to the William Frantz School and agreed to teach Ruby. Ruby was the only student in her class. Mrs. Henry taught Ruby while helping her with her feelings and emotions of being ostracized.

Each day she was escorted to school by US Marshals. When Ruby had to use the restroom, they escorted her. One morning as Ruby walked into school she heard a woman in the crowd threaten to poison her. After that event, Ruby stopped eating the lunch that her mom prepared for her each day. Ruby began to suffer from nightmares. Eventually, she saw child psychologist, Dr. Robert Coles, who volunteered his time due to his concern for Ruby. When the school janitor found a rodent problem in Mrs. Henry's classroom, he and Mrs. Henry discovered that Ruby had been hiding her lunches in a cabinet. She had been too frightened to eat them. The hateful woman's threat had really bothered Ruby and caused her to be fearful of eating her lunch prepared at home. When Mrs. Henry realized the issue, she began bring Ruby a lunch from her home for the remainder of the year.

One morning another person in the crowd proudly displayed a wooden coffin with a black doll inside. I cannot begin to imagine the intense emotions that six-year-old Ruby was facing. (People can be so very hateful. We often see their "true colors" when they don't get their way.)

But Ruby was not the only one that was being tormented. Her father lost his job. Her grandparents were forced to move from the land that they had worked on as sharecroppers for over twenty-five years. The family was banned from the local grocery store where they had shopped in the past. Unbelievable!

But eventually, Ruby's community - blacks and whites - showed support and kindness to Ruby and her family in various ways. Some of the neighbors watched Ruby's home as protectors. Another neighbor provided Ruby's father with a job. Several walked behind the US Marshals on trips to and from school each day. Eventually, some of the students returned to school.

One morning as Mrs. Henry watched Ruby and her escorts, she noticed that Ruby stopped and mouthed words as if she was talking to the crowd. When she entered the classroom, Mrs. Henry told Ruby that she had never observed her stop and address the crowd before. Ruby informed Mrs. Henry that she was not speaking to the crowd, but she was simply saying a prayer as she did everyday. Ruby went on to explain that she usually prayed before turning the corner on her way to and from school each day. But this day, Ruby had forgotten to pray. After realizing this, she stopped and prayed for her tormentors in the heat of the battle just before entering William Frantz Elementary School.

Later one of Ruby's escorts, Federal Marshal Charles Burkes, reported that Ruby never cried or whimpered. He stated, "She just marched along like a little soldier."

How could a six-year-old girl change American History? How did she fight this overwhelming battle without engaging her enemies? I think I might know.

Ruby guarded her heart. She was a six-year-old girl determined to "guard her heart". It is remarkable to say the least.

The prayer that she prayed twice daily is reported to be this:

"Please God, try to forgive these people because even if they say those bad things, they don't know what they are doing. So, You could forgive them, just like You did those folks a long time ago when they said terrible things about You."

Well if that doesn't step on your toes, I don't know what will!

Ruby Bridges loved people and forgave people, just like Jesus. She guarded her heart. I love the story of Ruby Bridges. It inspires me to practice love and forgiveness. It remind me to "guard my heart above all because it is the well-spring of life." It compels me to pray for my enemies even when I'm not feeling it- "because they don't know what they are doing".

My prayer is that God makes me strong enough to establish my boundaries, yet sensitive enough to pray for my enemies. Even when it doesn't make sense.

Here is the book that I sugguest reading to children if you are a teacher, parent, grandparent, aunt, or uncle: