Why is there so much pain in the world? Why doesn’t God stop it?

Why Does God allow suffering? Why is there war and hunger? Why do some people have more than enough, while others don’t?

Looking around the world, it’s a very unfair place. It can be hard to explain to children why an all-powerful God would allow these things to happen. We might have all the logical sounding arguments about free will, the fall of man, and God’s plan to redeem us, but how to explain that in a way that a child can understand? Even adults sometimes struggle with accepting the pain and suffering present here on earth. Even adults sometimes lose their faith when they just can’t understand why a God would allow this.

Maybe we can start by sharing with our children how much God loves us, and how much he hates sin. When the first people Adam and Eve left the garden, God clothed them to offer them protection. God loved us so much he sent his only son to die for us. He hates suffering and he has a plan in place to put an end to it.

On an individual level God is there to protect us from suffering, to provide for our needs, and answer our prayers. Sometimes we will go through times of hardship and struggle and God will be on our side to give us the strength to get through.

One way to bring it down to a child’s level is to use a parental analogy. It’s kind of like when a parent tells a child, ‘’don’t touch the stove, you’ll burn yourself,’  or ” take a rain jacket to school today as it will rain!’’ Parents have good advice and life tends to go more smoothly when we listen to them. It’s the same with God but not everyone wants to listen to him. Because of that there is suffering in the world.