Today is a day when we are supposed to pray for Selma. Many of us probably pray for this city on a daily basis, but today is set aside as a special event to check the spiritual health of this city and ask God to lift Selma and help it reach its full potential.

People have traveled to Selma from different parts of the United States to pray here. Local religious leaders, who feel our city has much to gain from a unified effort of prayer, invited them.

We support this effort. We support prayer any day of the week and in any city.

Selma is a spiritual town. Our history is deep and our churches are many. We are a city that practices religion and we stand firmly to our convictions.

It is fitting that we would organize a day of prayer and that people would feel compelled to come to our city and pray.

The organizers of the event are hoping that prayer can renew the moral and spiritual fibers of the people who live here.

Maybe it can if people are willing to change. There are lessons in the Bible that teach us not to let others steal our joy. Too often we are quick to become negative or down about a situation when there is no need to behave this way.

We need to pray tomorrow and ask God to help us be bright points of light for our community each day. We need to pray for strong leadership that resists the temptation to bicker and fight. We need to pray about that leadership moving us forward.

We should pray for our children, our educators and our schools.

There is much that can be changed in Selma. There is huge opportunity to lift ourselves up spiritually and economically.

We encourage all Selmians to take part in today’s event. We thank those who organized it.

We also want to add that we don’t need a special day of prayer to pray. Prayer can take place in Selma on any day.