Teaching Kids to Suffer Well

One of the great oversights of the western church in recent times has been the failure to teach a biblical theology of suffering. Our kids need to learn that to enter into a relationship with Christ is also an entrance into sharing in the sufferings of Christ. Here are some helpful words to teach your kids from the great theologian, Dr. John Stott: God uses suffering in pursuance of his purpose to make us holy, in other words, Christlike suffering fosters perseverance and purifies faith, and it deepens insight. Biblical teaching and personal experience thus combine to teach that suffering is the path to holiness or maturity. There is always an indefinable something about people who have suffered. They have a fragrance that others lack. They exhibit the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I sometimes wonder if the real test of our hunger for holiness is our willingness to experience any degree of suffering if only God will thereby make us holy.” Teach your kids to rejoice in their sufferings.