Tolerance

Last night as I looked at our blog I wondered what people thought when they saw how much importance I place on teaching the gospel of Christ. I wondered if the words I wrote did justice to what we actually teach. Let me explain. In the past few years my life has changed tremendously and I attribute that to my faith. God is the reason for the healing, for the joy & for this opportunity. To be honest a few years back I wouldnt have had the patience to homeschool my kids. In fact I barely could do homework with them without losing my cool. In the past I yelled more than I would like to admit. Some might ask isn't that just the result of maturing or couseling, but without a doubt the thing that made the most difference was allowing Christ to transform me. Allowing him to heal the parts of my heart that were once broken.
This has become a major part of my families life, because the children & Scott have seen the difference it has made. I believe ,because of that, that teaching the kids about the bible, about who Jesus was & is, and teaching them who God is & what they mean to him is more important than anything else. I take very literally Matthew 6:33,

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness & all these things will be added unto you."

I know that if I do nothing else that I must instill in them a faith that will carry them through this life. However I also know the importance of teaching them tolerance & to think for themselves. Obviously history teaches us that Christianity has been misused & misrepresented. We as Christians would be foolish to ignore our history, the good & the bad. The fact is there is no religion (or spirituality) out there that has not succumbed at one point to hatred, inequality or various other negatives. No matter how pure something is, in the hands of imperfect people it becomes tarnished.
I want them to practice a faith that brings wholeness & I believe that Christ offers that. I believe this because I have taken many different paths to get where I am today & in the end I found what I was looking for in the one thing I tried to run away from. Yet although I believe the bible is true & I believe Jesus is the answer. I also look back on where I came from & see God in it as well. So I balance my teaching of the gospel with tolerance. Although that word doesnt quite fit what Im trying to say. I want my children to do more than just tolerate other faiths. I want my children to be able to discern whats right & wrong even in the church we serve. I want my children to love like Jesus loved. I want them to put their faith into action & faith in action is more than just judging everyone else thats different. Its seeing the heart of a person. Its seeing whats behind the way a person lives. It's looking past what something appears to be & seeing what God see's. There are a lot of grey areas that one day will be made clear. However in the here & now all I can do is make it as clear as possible to my children & pray that God guides them as he sees fit. That may or may not look like the faith I practice, but in the end that might be something greater than what I have come to know. Perhaps they will not make the same mistakes that I have made or that have been made throughout history. Maybe what I teach them today is only a small vision of who God truly is. I can only hope that they will do greater things than these (John 14:12), but in the meantime I teach them what I know.