When I grew up, my childhood playgrounds were made of wood
that gave you splinters, metal slides pre-heated to 200 degrees by the open sun,
and merry-go-rounds that made you dizzy with a concussion if you got spun off. If you’re old and reading this you’re
probably laughing or horrified with memories, if you’re young, believe it or
not we had the time of our lives and are better for it! Nowadays with safety in
mind (for good reason) and sue-happy parents, we now build them with heat-resistant,
splinter-proof, plastic and you don’t see as many of the questionable
playground equipment where you can fall off or spin until you lose your lunch.
I get the reasons. Kids are safer because of them. In case you haven’t noticed
though we’ve taken a concept for safety and keeping from any type of harm and
applied it in ways to our own hurt. We treat kids and youth, and even ourselves, with kid gloves and grow up with a deep lack of character and preparation for the real world.
We want our whole lives including our kid's, to be sheltered in plastic from harm but this is a grand
illusion. There is a rare disease few people have who literally feel no pain and they must constantly be supervised because they are unaware of any injury such as a broken leg or open wound. Pain is a warning of a truth in order to prevent greater harm. Our hurt is a clear signal from our nerves that something has gone wrong and needs attention: "you have a broken leg" that needs mended, "you have cancer" that needs treated, and spiritually speaking..."you have sin" that needs forgiven.If pain is ignored and not yielded to,it can lead to death. Someone who is never exposed to any suffering of life, may be unaware of the suffering of their lost soul, and deeply lack character. As Agur told God not to bless him with too much, because he was afraid he would become proud in heart, and feel like he had no need of God in Proverbs 30:9. God allows suffering from sin in part, for us to realize our dependency and desperate need for Him so we do not become proud, and also because if there is this much destruction from suffering here from sin (all suffering, even in non-sinful cases, is ultimately because of sin entering the world, and death through sin) , there must be spiritual suffering as a result of sin as well.It reveals the true ugliness of sin and our fallen condition . The lack of preparation for suffering in the world can be
spiritually fatal. It is a disgrace to send a kid, spiritually unprepared, off to college where professors will mock their
faith, co-eds will tempt with pre-marital sex (even at the Christian Colleges),drinking
etc. They will enter into relationships
and jobs where they are not protected in the four walls of a church or
homeschool (not knocking homeschool, it is great if done right, and I have done
both public and homeschool). We have a small chance to be real with them about
life and let them know there will not always be a design of a ‘plastic
playground’ to keep them from harm. God allows trials to increase our
character, as we read here:
Romans 5:3,4
“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations,
knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character;
and character, hope.”
James 1: 2-4
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various
trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let
patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
nothing.”
I am not saying be pessimistic and tell them not to dream
big or to be negative about life; but you and your kid or youth had better be
biblically prepared for the real world and armed with scripture to counteract
the lies that this world will certainly bombard them with. The world awaits
them with open arms to pull them down. It will do so if they are not walking in
God’s word.
Another reason to be real with them is because they need to
understand when trials come, how to make sense of suffering that doesn’t make
sense. I have had my share of suffering, (even horrific such as being nearly
stabbed to death and PTSD many years thereafter). Of course in the suffering
you think “How could you allow this God?” But you do not see the story from the
other side and what He can accomplish through you if you allow your trial to
turn into a testimony. For years, I did not see or understand the fruit of how
God was going to use my suffering. After being forced away from the town I grew up in and loved, also suffering great
trauma, I now can say I have seen the fruit in eternal value. My testimony
allows me to have empathy toward hurt people and share the reason for the hope
in me (1 Peter 3:15) that doesn’t make sense to this world. I have seen the
lost come to Christ who had experienced other traumas and when they heard how
God saved me from despair, attempted suicide, from hatred and anger, how He
gave me the power to forgive, and the joy on my face, they realize they are not
hopeless either and some have accepted Christ.
Note this: If just
one soul gets saved , as a result of God using the circumstances in your life,
to create a testimony to reach their heart, in a way that someone who hasn’t
suffered could not, it is worth any suffering you have endured.
I do not say that ignorantly of hypocritically as I
intimately know the suffering of near death,abuse, and years of trauma to the
point of madness. God lifted me out to help those still in it.Ask God to make
your temporary suffering have eternal value. Even 90 years of suffering would
be worth one soul not suffering forever and by far worse. So whatever your suffering has been, small or
major, be sure to keep the right attitude and confidence in God to use it for
His glory and ask Him to be glorified in it. Ask Him to use it as a testimony for
people suffering similarly. If you have been divorced or left, reach out to the
lost who are going through that, if you have suffered trauma, reach out to
victims similar, if chronic pain, to those physically hurting and depressed
from it. When people who are suffering without Christ see how you overcame, or,
how you are currently dealing with it and having joy that doesn’t make sense.
It will draw them to want to know the reason for the hope that is in you. Don’t
allow bitterness to ruin your story and defeat the purpose God can make for
your suffering.
The bible mentions patience and perseverance in suffering,
there is also here where Peter writes:
2 Peter 1:5-11
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to
your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to
self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly
kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and
abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness,
and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.”
Wonderful, eternal promises
in the next verse 10-11:
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your
call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for
so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
So I know this devotional kind of split into two parts; from
spoiled unprepared kids, to, people who have suffered. But they are very
inter-linked. Because like it or not, kids/youth will grow and face suffering
and you do not want them to turn from Christ out of an unexpected bitterness of
life, or denying Him to avoid the suffering of persecution from Universities, employers,
friends, whomever. So prepare them and prepare yourself as we are in a
spiritual war. If you are suffering right now, have suffered, or will in the
future, you need to lean on the everlasting arms and let God make something
good out of it, so that your suffering is not in vain, and to spare someone
else from eternal suffering. Stay in walking and trusting God’s word, because
your own heart will deceive you (Jeremiah 17:9) to feel so sorry for yourself,
that you are blind to the desperate need of the hurting world around you, and
it will keep you from knowing Joy in suffering. Make Satan regret that he
attacked you by using it for the glory of God.
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