By Not Known
Have you ever thought about how children may see life? Consider the endless round of learning and training activities that they undergo.
Perhaps it goes something like this:
I don’t understand mummy and daddy. They say they love me and I think they do. But they make me do all these hard things. I have to do well at school, do my homework and go to tuition. And then they add lessons for music, swimming and ballet. It’s not much fun. I which I had more time to play, to watch TV and to be with mummy and daddy.
We parents see the same scene rather differently. We know that our children would rather not do these things and we get tired of endlessly organising and prodding for them to do them. But we persist and with good reason. We think that our children need to be trained in the knowledge and life skills that are essential for their successful entry into the challenging adult world.
Now let’s think about how we adults see life’s hardships. This includes things like illness of body, mind, heart and soul, along with financial and work troubles, family or relationship problems and such like. We tend to grumble to God about these things and ask him to take them away from us. We see them as spoiling life’s fun. They may even give us a puzzle about the goodness of god. If he is all-powerful and all-loving, why doesn’t he keep these bad things from us?
God sees the same scene rather differently. Consider these words:
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?…. Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb 12: 7, 10- 11)
We see our suffering with a child’s eye. God sees it with his eye. We see our immediate pleasure. God sees our ultimate pleasure. We complain about suffering. God uses it for our growth in grace. So, let us accept the hardship and suffering with good spirit and ask how we can use it to improve ourselves.