A six year old girl named Ruby Bridges taught the world an unforgettable lesson about forgiveness. In 1960, Ruby walked into the William France Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana the first day after a federal judge mandated the desegregation of the New Orleans school district. Ruby was the only African American student in the entire school. Every day she walked through a gauntlet of angry adults who insulted her with racial slurs and foul language. Robert Coles, the Harvard psychologist, interviewed Ruby Bridges in the midst of this pressure packed situation. Coles had seen the little girl walking through the crowd with her lips moving. He asked, what she was saying? Was she talking back to them?

"No!" she replied.

"Then what were you saying?" Coles asked.

"I was praying!"

"Praying?" Robert Coles said in a surprised voice. "Why were you praying?"

Ruby said, "I usually pray before I go to school but this particular morning I forgot so I prayed as I walked into the school."

"What did you pray?" Robert Coles asked.

I prayed, "God forgive them. That's what Jesus did on the cross." Dr. Coles said that Ruby Bridges' gracious act of forgiveness transformed his own life. Ruby Bridges reminds all of us that the only motivation for forgiveness is gratitude.