Remembering and Remembering

But you are a shield around me, O Lord;
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.
I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.
Psalm 3:3-6

I have been thinking a lot today about a lot of different things.
Today is a thinking day and a rememberence day.
Not specifically to one person (with the exception God - but then again he is three... I guess that counts him out too) but to ideas and concepts and times and places.

Tolerance. What a word. It is thought to mean so many different things and implies so many different things (Did I just say the same thing twice).

According to Dictionary.com the definitions for this word are as follows...
1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint
4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance: My tolerance of noise is limited.

The definitions continue in relation to Machinery and Medicine but for our purposes this is what we are sticking with.

We, meaning Matthew and I, were thinking about the world and how the world refuses to stop hating others and yet certain sectors continue to try and attain perfection on earth. Perhaps I am not being as clear as I can be - we try and become perfect and yet perfection is unattainable.

Back to Tolerance. I was speaking with some high schoolers and they said that they disliked the tolerance movement (don't get your feathers too ruffled yet). These kids - apart from all being from educated homes (parents with college degrees) are all from a wide variety of schools (differing in economic prosperity), have a very wide variety of political opinions, and agree on fews things except that one of the kids looks like frodo. They said of the Tolerance movement that instead of promoting and embracing the differences that in their schools the tolerance movement was making everyone look the same and no one was allowed to talk about the differences. They seemed to find that the rule was, "you MUST tolerate all people... or else". To make quite an outrageous statement in fact we musn't tolerate all people - we have the right in this country to hate... In fact I believe it is in our very nature to hate... This is why Christianity is needed... because humanity is first and foremost bad... yes there exists good charity in the world and yes there exists love... but the first lesson we teach children is how to share... So back to the original subject - are we simply trying to impose perfection onto a imperfect race (the human race) - and although as Christians we are indeed simply trying and failing to be good in a bad world why is everyone else - and is the tolerance movement actually helping or building up barriers when kids feel as though their uniqueness is being taken away - I would like thoughts from all aspects of the spectrum (although in the spirit of... well.. tolerance I would ask the comments to be respectful)...

I should clarify that I do actually think the original principles of tolerance are good - embracing differences - especially in reference to the third definition of tolerance listed above - I am simply wondering if we have skewed (what a horrible way to spell it) the definition in favor of implementation.

On a brighter side - life is beautiful - and this world is beautiful - if this world is currently marred by sin think of how beautiful the mountains will be when perfected.

Also I want you to know that Matthew and I are doing fine here in St. Louis - my job at the church is working out wonderfully and I am doing what I love - spending time with youth and the sun just started shining - Matthew is in his groove with the classes he is taking here and we are very greatful for Joshua and Kirk who came with us. My beautiful friend Maria is getting married in just about one month and both Matthew and I will be flying back for that occasion and are getting really excited!

To end I have created a Top 10 list of things I love in St. Louis

10. Ted Drewwes Custard (sort of like ice cream except better)
9. More snow than the NW Coast
8. having my own house
7. wild bunnies are everyone
6. there are lots of free things to do (Art Museum, Zoo - mom, History Museum, etc.)
5. being walking distance from the Sem and my job
4. Target has a Starbucks (yes this is number 4 on my list - and I can say I come from the birthplace of Starbucks and people think thats cool)
3. Being branded as a complete hippy liberal
3b. things here are cheaper (ex. gas and food)(please don't read into that statement)
2. I can't put a number two - it's too close to the top to be anything random
1. Being with Matthew (I know it's cheesy)

Much Love from me and THE FATHER