Tolerance (Feb. 11)

I read an article today on some Yahoo page talking about the six personality traits that everyone should develop. One of the six was tolerance but like most people the author fails to define tolerance in the right way. Unfortunately this is a common problem in the world today. See, the entire world wants tolerance to mean that we should just accept what someone else believes as truth without any second thought. What this really is called is acceptance, but becuase acceptance has a complete lack of virtue in that it ignores truth, it is not a virtue. Tolerance on the other hand is really not acceptance, but lovingly pointing out fault while gently correcting in a loving manner. A parent will tolerate the behavior of a child but correct them so as not to make the same mistake again, even if they take a picture of the funny situation for the scrapbook. Tolerance understands turth and seeks it out, thus making it a virtue. In the article mentioned, it talks about tolerance on a small local level, a level in which acceptance may be a good thing. I just wish people would get their terms right. Click here to read the article.