why does God pick and choose who gets the good childhood?

Here's another way to look at it. Maybe it was not such a unilateral decision by God. Perhaps He counseled with us, and outlined for us some of the conditions that we would live under during our time on Earth. We were spirit children, and we had never known pain or neglect or wanted for anything. We lived surrounded by God's love. But we needed to obtain physical bodies, because we had progressed as far as we could in spirit form. There were things to learn that we never could have learned without ever facing adversity. Perhaps we were full of confidence that, yes, we knew it would be hard, but it would only be like a small moment in our eternal experience, and soon we would be back home. So maybe we said something like "go ahead and give me all you've got. I can take it. I want to know what it is really like. I will learn, and I know that I can always call on You for help when I need it." And God could have said, "Are you sure, my child? I do know that you can do this, but I will hurt for you when I know that you are hurting." And we came to an agreement about which challenges and ordeals we felt we would really learn from. Sometimes the families that we had wanted to be part of were not living up to the challenges of mortal life in the way that we hoped, but we loved them when we knew them in heaven, and we hoped that even though we would be weak and small at first, that we would be able to help them somehow and to show them the love that they had forgotten. And maybe God asked us, "Are you sure that you still want to go to those parents? They have forgotten so much, and it will be a hard life for you." And we said yes, because of the love that we had for them.

Maybe God tried to talk us into easier choices, and we chose the lives that we have because we knew that we had much to learn, and we wanted to be with the ones that we loved. Or maybe we were given the option between challenges of one kind or another, and the set that we chose were what we felt that we could learn the most from or deal with best or help somebody the most or make the most difference in the world.

I am sure that the decisions made were not random, and that we knew and agreed to what we would face, even if we couldn't entirely comprehend what it would feel like when we were in the middle of it. But we believed that it would be worth it, whatever it was, and knew that it would be for a relatively brief moment in our eternal existance.

My grandfather was a minister. And one day in church he said something that has stuck with me till this day.

" God would never burden you with a load he knows you can not handle. "

I dunno what that means to other people. But, to me it means God believes me and anyone else who has had to deal with what we have had to. To be very strong people. I can look at family members and friends and know that there is no way they could handle or have handled half of what I have dealt with in my 35 years. It has made me what I am and inside past all the pain, confusion, and darkness. Is a very strong person who can handle most things others could only imagine. And in alot of ways that is a good thing.

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
charlajustin said:
My grandfather was a minister. And one day in church he said something that has stuck with me till this day.

" God would never burden you with a load he knows you can not handle. "

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

FYI, the scripture you are referring to is 1Cor 10:13. My biblical version reads as follows:

"No temptation has taken you except what is common to men. But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation, he will also make the way out in order for you to be able to endure it."

(just thought you may be interested in knowing...)

AS

Thank you.

It was so long ago. I think I might have been 12 or 13 at the time. That brought back alot of good memories for me. My grandparents were always the one constant in my life.

Freewill, I can identify with part of what you said. Although I've never been physically abused I know what it feels like when there's no one you can go to who would just hold your hand and tell you everything will be all right. I can recollect only two times someone had embraced me: first - August this year - a girl I worked with, after a farewell party in a pub; second - when I was in high school, Easter time, my teacher who I met accidentally in a bookstore. It was brief and I'm sure it meant nothing to them, they are very outgoing people with lots of friends, but it meant everything to me and I will never forget it.

---- " God would never burden you with a load he knows you can not handle. " -----

If that's true why do people commit suicide? They do it because they CAN'T handle the pain.

Personally, I don't believe God has anything to do with it. I believe we live many times and that we plan our lives ourselves before we are born, so we can try everything, experience everything. One time you are happy, another you are not. And this lifetime happened to be the unhappy one. There is a good chance that next one will be better.

So, Freewill, I know these brackets are not going to help you in any way because that's human contact you need so much but
((((((((((((((((((( HUGS ))))))))))))))))))))
and I hope one day you find someone who will be able to fill this emptiness.

sparkling

While I'm not into discussing suicide right now, I do believe that there are Christians who end their lives before their time (as ordained of God, that is.)

Yes, I agree they feel the load and feel they cannot handle it.
I wonder if it is because of the lack of touch with God? Depression causes loss of faith and loss of contact like that...but then one would wonder at that time why the angels or God Himself doesn't step in and help? But then, we do have freewill...

...and to die is gain for one is with Christ then....

I very much understand your questions. They are also my questions. I do not understand why I was born to my mother who abused me throughout my childhood, and my father who loved me but failed to protect me. I do not remember ever being hugged or kissed by my mother; I've felt rejection from her from the time I can remember.

However, God, for me even in childhood, was my safe sanctuary. He was my harbor from the storms of my family. He was my "home". I sensed His presence and his acceptance and his love from my earliest years. It seems to me that even as all chaos and he** surrounded me growing up, He was always present.

My mother was so cruel to me that I still can find no comfort in the scripture which tells me that God knitted me together in my mother's womb... I want to ask him why I was in that darn womb in the first place! I love having a God that allows me to question Him and who answers my questions, or otherwise reassures me. He gave me a couple answers: "Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up and adopt me as His child." " Yet You are He who took me out of the womb.. and made me hope and trust... Iwas cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother's womb You have been my God". That HAS been my experience. Spiritually, I have known God my whole life, even though I may have lacked information about Him... my heart... my spirit knew He was real and that He cared for me.

The other thing is what others have said before me: it is precisely because of my childhood and my life experiences that I am who I am today, healing into wholeness with a real understanding that evil exists and that goodness can triumph. I chose long ago NOT to be like my parents and focused my attention on trying to live a good life, for myself and for others. Doubt at all that I could have done that without the reassurance that I was loved.. that God loved me even when no one else did.

As someone else wrote, I will ALSO be asking this question of God in the end:
Why did innocennt children have to suffer at the hands of evil adults? ... and especially at the hands of adults that were supposed to love & cherish them.

Jesus was on cross and asked God why he had forsaken him, then said forgive them for they do not know what they do.

I could not imagine being that gloriouse for I have been raped molested beaten yet I could not say as gloriouse as Jesus did for his giving gift his life for our sins. Oh my! He was as human as you and I and yet he gave his life for us. to give us a gift. Geesh

BTW I believe that God has extra punishment for those who do not take care of HIS children.

Matthew 18:3-6,10,14

" Truly I say unto you, unless you are converted and become like chldren, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kindgom of heaven. And whosever receives one such child in MY name receives ME...but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea...

See that you do not despise one of these littles ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of my Father who is in heaven..
Thus it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish."

Although (after many, many years of study) I choose not to believe the "Christ" story, I do believe in God, and I do believe that there is a plan and perfect logic in the suffering of the world.

Without my suffering I would not be the person I am today.

It made me stronger and stronger and more and more able to help others with their suffering.

I do believe that Jesus WAS an example (one of many) of a strong human being with courage, high ideals and a heart of love (they were called prophets) and we should look to stories like that in dealing with our own suffering.

Face your pain, embrace that bad childhood and own it--you may not know it yet, but it made you strong.

How you use that strength and power is your choice.

Choose wisely.

Even the Old Testament refers to taking care of the orphans. God does know of those children who are hurt and cannot take care of themselves. He gives us the responsibility (adults) to do this. He uses us as his people to take care of the things of earth, imo.