So now we know!

     "Knowing" should be a good thing.  Knowing too much or too little may not be a good thing.  The opposite is also true.  There are some things we don't want to know and "Ignorance is bliss."  When we encounter information and take it in, the analysis of what to do with that information begins.  We also have an obligation to know some things which furthers our need to be educated.  Knowing how things work make our everyday life easier.  Knowing how people work does much the same thing.  While we have this innate question about who we are, so many don't have the desire to learn.  Complacency is rampant among people.  So much so that we defer to others knowledge rather than finding out for ourselves.  As we come to know ourselves our knowledge of others increases and biases either fade away or are built.  As we know our larger family and community our knowledge becomes increasingly challenged.  Taking that to the world level we feel almost threatened but at least miniscule.  Knowing should be a good thing.
     Everyone grows in knowledge.  Sometimes we grow slowly while other times we have growth spurts.  The Bible speaking to adults tells us that where we were once children drinking milk, we are now adults eating meat.  Our capacity for engaging knowledge and being known increases for all of us.  We are encouraged first to so seek to know God that all things in our lives take second place.  'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might."  The more we seek to know God, the more he reveals who he is and who we are.  Not in our sight but in his.  In a perfect world this would be the standard for all mankind.  However, we do not live in a perfect world.  Our world is fallen and full of Satan's lies. 
     We all have someone who taught us to tie our shoes, brush our teeth, eat a banana and button our shirts.  The essentials taught through our childhood are varied with different societies.  In the northern European norm people leave their babies in their carriages to nap in the fresh outdoor air.  Never mind the season.  In our western civilization this is absurd.  Why expose children to countless risks?  For America and many other countries the innocence of this practice is gone.  In it's place people lock doors, put grates over their windows, use video monitoring and check on their children from time to time.  In turn we are taught that this is the "norm" and we accept it as so.  Most people do not want to put their children and families at risk. 
     Can you trust what you've read, been told or seen on TV?  Is that knowledge just as biased as what I've been talking about?  Yes, of course it is.  We receive the information with the expectation that we incorporate that information into our lives whether we understand it or not.  Should we choose to do something other than what society dictates (because of conscious or knowledge) there is someone or some agency that is ready and more than willing to bring correction into our lives.  Appropriate parenting has been rewritten by the secular masses.  This knowledge causes me a dilemma of what to do with what I know to be true.  Where do I join the masses and where do I resist the masses?  It's very difficult to be a spouse, friend, worker or parent at this time in history.  Put "Christian" in front of those words and the problem manifests itself exponentially. 
     The initial statement; "So now we know!" turns to: "Now that we know, what do we do?"  Do we compromise our knowledge and belief or do we stand against that which threatens our knowledge and beliefs?  God encourages us to take the stand.  Not "a" stand but "the" stand.  His stand.  As the knowledge of God and his ways grow in us there is the encouragement to be more like Jesus in all of our life.  There are men, women and children who are waiting for you and I to stand for Jesus so that they can lean on our beliefs and stand themselves.  "People don't care about how much you know until they know how much you care."  Now that you know, what is your decision?