Dear Father, I was taught that culture is a way of life among a set of people. We see, then, how some practices and traditional beliefs that are acceptable in certain places can be morally upsetting in others. Sometimes, we may not need to go as far as discussing societal traditions; our very own Christian denominations live this out, holding strongly to our inherited beliefs as though they were absolute, and every contrary belief were false. Should what has always been done become the standard by which we determine what is true? In Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman, she said, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye [the Jews] say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus responded, saying, "Woman, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." Jesus clarifies that repeated practices among a group of people do not necessarily translate to the right practice. He tells the woman that the belief held by both the Samaritans and the Jews, over which they contested which was right, was no longer the standard. My question is, where do we draw the line between repeated practices and our concern against contrary beliefs, or between repeated practices and our belief that truth is made absolute through historicity? Today, we have become so distracted contesting which beliefs are correct that we have loosened our grip on the delicate matters of the kingdom. Yet, in reality, most of our beliefs may not be without fault, and Jesus came not for contests but to present Your Word. Shouldn't this count in deciding what matters to prioritize? Doesn't this reveal what standards to live by? Translations: Slide 1: English Slide 2: French Slide 3: Bengali Slide 4: Hindi Slide 5: Urdu Slide 6: Portuguese #Traditions #culture #wordofGod #beliefsystem #custom