We need to encourage and promote this. Our job is to begin to see them as separate beings with distinct personalities, with their own likes and dislikes, thoughts and feelings. And separate can mean different. Tolerance comes into play when there are differences. Religious differences may appear quite small to an outsider when a child from an observant home moves further along the continuum toward greater observance.
Power struggles occur and arguments escalate.
It's good enough for us, we're comfortable with it. But this is where respect and tolerance enter. My daughter took a change upon herself and we have become closer through it. There is beauty in reaching a high level of respect and acceptance, and doing so, in and of itself, creates closeness. This closeness comes about through the support, respect and tolerance of another's way.