Tolerance: The ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with. Willingness to accept feelings, habits or beliefs that are different from your own.
This word, the action of it, I feel would fit well in Galatians 5:22-25 "The Fruit of the Spirit"
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
Al and I were talking last night about tolerance. This word is used a lot - but the actions of it - not so much.
Boy, do we live in a world where the Fruit of the Spirit is rarely displayed in our leadership, in our elected officials, on college campus, at high school sporting events, dance recitals, neighborhood meetings, community committee events, town hall meetings, churches...and sad to say...in our homes. We all can think of several examples where people choose not to be tolerant - need I even mention Facebook?!? Social media is the worst example of this - people are so willing to post their opinions - I wonder if these same opinions would be shared if they had to stand and speak them?
My little rant today is: if more people actually acted tolerant instead of preaching tolerance, we would be in a much better place. The media doesn't help when they try to define groups of people and put them in a "box" - well, if they are this...then they must think this...excuse me, I think for myself. To coin a pharse from Dirty Dancing..."no one puts Baby in a corner" - and no one will define me, but me and my actions. The same is true for you.
I was taken a back yesterday, when a local radio host read his blog post about his daughter. He is politically conservative and last year when Bruce Jenner became Caitlyn Jenner, he made some pretty harsh judgments about the situation. Little did he know, that his daughter who was working as an intern in his studio considered herself as transgender. She was in the process of changing and now lives as a man. This radio host, said he now cringes at the thought of the comments he made about Bruce/Caitlyn and wishes he could take them back. He also, was very honest in telling us how he and his wife responded to this..."we love you no matter what and always will." I was actually crying while he read this...his voice was broken. The point of his telling us this was that because of his conservative view points, people "box" him into a group of being intolerant. He did admit, before this experience, he spoke intolerance of transgender people. Now, he would fight for his son and his rights to be who he feels he is. He did state that his political choice of "how" to do this differs from his son's points of view - but, he respects him. People can change their opinions you know.
This had Al and I talking about all the protests at different political events. Where is the tolerance? Even Donald Trump, with his many arrogant statements - no matter how crazy they sound - he still has the constitutional right to freedom of speech. I just find it funny that the protesters at these events want "Donald" to be more tolerant, but they themselves are not being tolerant to him. In my opinion, Hilary has alot of explaining to do too. I am not happy with either choice.
As this tumultuous political year continues, keep in mind that tolerance and intolerance are shared by all parties. It is my intention to be different - tolerant to my friend's opinions - I hope you think on this and can do the same.
Blessings from Ringle, Wisconsin.
