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A Devotional for Talking with Your Kids About Why We Suffer
The following is composed of three daily devotional readings from 10 Questions About Pain and Suffering: 30 Devotions for Kids, Teens, and Families, a new devotional written especially for children ages 8–14.
Consequences for Sin
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, God let them experience consequences. They had to leave their home in the garden, and that caused pain and suffering. You get it, right? When you mess up, you deal with consequences. Maybe you forgot to clean your room, and then you didn’t get to go to a friend’s house. Or maybe you were grounded from your favorite video game because you didn’t do your homework.
The Bible is full of people who suffered consequences because of their sin. The Israelites had to wander in the wilderness for forty years because they refused to obey God (Num. 14:20–24). Jonah was swallowed up by a huge fish because he didn’t want to follow God’s plan (Jonah 1:7–17).
Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” This is a farming example. It means that if you sow (or plant) sin in life, that seed of sin will reap (or create) a consequence.
Consequences are not fun, but we have them so we will learn. They are supposed to be a bit painful. That’s what helps us remember to obey next time. Not all suffering happens because you did something bad, but sin usually causes painful consequences. We don’t have to be glad about being disciplined. But we can remember that God gives us consequences because he loves us.
Think about it like this: If your dog runs out into the street, you will do something to make sure he doesn’t get run over by a car. You might yell at him. You might even put a training collar on him. You don’t do this to be mean. You want to teach him, with a little pain, that the street is dangerous and could bring bigger pain. This is what God does when he disciplines us. He knows that sin is dangerous, and he wants us to know it too.
So why do we suffer? Sometimes we suffer as a consequence of our sin.
10 Questions About Pain and Suffering
Beth Broom
Presenting 10 questions in 30 readings on one important faith topic, this volume of the 10 Questions series helps young readers navigate their suffering, seek comfort in God, and help others in their distress.
Pain Caused by Others
We can’t have a world full of sinners and not have a world where we hurt each other. Let’s say you and I are friends. One day I come to school in a very bad mood. You ask if I want to hang out after school. I yell, “Leave me alone! I don’t even like you.” Of course you’d be surprised. Your feelings would be hurt. Even if I didn’t mean it, you’d still feel sad. Maybe you’d even be angry.
This is an example of how someone else’s sin can cause suffering. You didn’t do anything to deserve what I said, but you’re still hurt by it. In the Bible, David was hurt by other people, when he didn’t do anything wrong. Listen to Psalm 56:1:
Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me.
The person who was hurting David was doing it on purpose. Someone was treating him so badly that he felt like he was being smashed down into the dirt. This is what it means to be oppressed.
Have you ever felt like this? We all feel sad and angry when someone else does something that hurts us. And sometimes we experience consequences when someone hurts us. Sometimes the pain inside us leads to other bad things.
If I yell at you, then you might not feel good about being friends with me. Our friendship might end. That’s a consequence you wouldn’t deserve. If someone hurts you over and over, you might start to wonder if you did something to cause it. When other people hurt us, it’s hard to understand the reason. It can be easy to blame ourselves. But we are not in charge of other people’s actions or feelings. It’s not our fault when someone else sins.
Jesus is the best example of someone who experienced consequences because of someone else’s sin. Imagine never doing anything wrong and still being killed. Jesus was treated like he was the worst person on earth. He took punishment even though he didn’t deserve it. Yet he is the perfect Savior and friend to us. As our Savior, he forgives our sin. And as our friend, he is with us when we suffer.
So why do we suffer? Sometimes we suffer as a consequence of our sin, and sometimes we suffer when other people sin.
Let’s remember this: God wants a relationship with us, but sin keeps us from being close to him.
A Fallen World
Before Adam and Eve sinned, the world was very good.
After they sinned, the world changed. Here is what God said to Adam after he sinned:
Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken; for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return. (Gen. 3:17–19)
After sin came into the world, thorns and thistles started coming out of the ground. Adam’s work as a farmer got a lot harder. Suffering can happen because we live in a fallen world. What does it mean to say the world is fallen? It means everything on earth is affected by sin. God made his creation perfect. It’s still good and wonderful—yet it’s also broken.
My son’s friend recently fell into a thornbush while they were playing. The thorns scratched and bruised his legs. He had to stop playing and clean up the cuts, and he was in a lot of pain. Our fallen world caused him to suffer.
Do you know someone who has a disease? Have you ever broken a bone or had to get stitches? Has your town had a tornado or hurricane? These are all ways we suffer because we live in a fallen world. And here is the worst type of suffering: Genesis 3:17–19 tells us we will all die someday.
Let’s remember this: God wants a relationship with us, but sin keeps us from being close to him. So he made a way for us to be made clean from our sin. He sent Jesus into the world to die in our place. We still have to live in a world where sin causes suffering. But we can be close to God and be forgiven by God (1 Pet. 3:18).
So why do we suffer? Sometimes we suffer as a consequence of our sin, sometimes we suffer when other people sin, and sometimes we suffer because we live in a fallen world.
This article is adaped from 10 Questions About Pain and Suffering: 30 Devotions for Kids, Teens, and Families by Beth Broom.
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