O Lord our God, be with us when we face challenging times and challenging people. Help us to respond to those times and people with love and compassion even when they try to make us respond in hate and anger. May we go out of our way to create a world where hate does not have the power that only we can give it and make one for which love and caring for our neighbors is the expectation. Let us become a people of change. Allow us to look to what builds others up, and toward the needs of those who are without hope, chance or opportunity in order that we might create those things for them. All this we ask in your name. Amen.
