Sometimes we struggle to know why we are suffering, why our prayers seem to go unanswered. I woke thinking about my friend this morning. She has a young child, 5-years-old who has suffered torturous medical interventions for most of his little life. I wonder why this little boy has to go through so much. He has the most amazingly wonderful family; he’s so small, so innocent. I wonder why and then just keep on praying.
I’ve lost dear friends, people so kind and wonderful and helpful. And have family members who have faced one plight after the next, so undeserving of wrong treatment. It’s hard sometimes to make sense of things.
This morning I thought of those who are going through tough times later in life. How scary it is when we’re in our 50′s or 60′s and beyond when we face financial disaster. We look ahead and say “what will happen to me?”
Sometimes it helps to remember others who have suffer before us and somehow pulled through. I was led to grandma Bold’s life. She had my mother when she was close to 50 and then in her late 50′s she and grandpa and 5 kids lost everything and had to pack up the car and move to California, bag and baggage. The family pulled together and made the best of it. Things worked out. They sold pots and pans, worked for the Whirlpool Store, selling washing machines and appliances, canned their own food, fed their family and even bought a house, all this when they were in their 50′s and 60′s. Things worked out. Perhaps it was luck, or maybe something in their character which kept them plodding on, even with menial jobs.
One never knows how our current sufferings will one day help others. It could be a decision we make, or a habit we have or something we endured for a long time that will pull someone out of tough times or hopelessness, just knowing that it can be done and that it’s possible. Grandma Bold probably never knew that her story would one day help me in a moment of discouragement and hopelessness. Not that she went through all this for me or my family, but her strength, character and experience makes me know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. 
Very true and very thought-provoking. It always comforts me to know that no matter what trials and persecutions are occurring in my life or the lives of those I love, we can be comforted and understood fully by the sufferings of Christ and the promise of the fulfillment of God’s ultimate purpose (Rom 8:18, 28).
PS) I love the Israel pictures!
when I read this, it reminded me that though sometimes some die young, or suffer, it’s not over.. probably half or more of those in the 2nd ress.. will be children or teenagers.. they’ve not even begun to live yet.. the vast majority of mankind has 100 years ahead of them, and far, far more… eternity… after that. It’s not over yet. we have yet to begin.. to live..
My daughter Alexandra cried over and over again in september, just before her 17th birthday. She cried, “if there is a God why do innocent little children have to be sick and suffer ?” She named our little 5 y.o. mutual friend. Again she asked yelling at me, “If there is a God, Why does Mr. (our favorite minister in the world), the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, most giving man on the earth have to have a brain tumor?” She really wants to know. I asked Mr. Segall, what do I say? He came to her during services at the feast and took her for a long walk because he is a caring man. He told me he has learned so much from his trial. I know that at the present time it doesn’t seem to benefit anyone. It’s that time in the far off future that we finally see. I just finished reading the book of Job. There is a lot of suffering in that book that just doesn’t seem to make much sense at first but then upon second look it gets a wee bit clearer. That one needs a thorough reading over and over again.