A series of letters from a mother to her daughters.
Letter Five
My Dearest Daughters,
I am in a time of contemplation and wonderment. I have mentioned suffering in a previous letter. Suffering is as much a part of life as breathing. You can’t have one without the other, for it comes to us all at one time or another, to some more often than others, but to us all at certain points during our lives.
Many try to explain the reasons for suffering. Some people think that in knowing the whys the pain is lessened to some degree, or by explaining it, this somehow makes it easier to bear. None of this is true, I’m afraid, because I have been through the fire. Pain and suffering are just that, no matter how much one knows or understands.
It is not my objective to inform you of the whys but to present to you some thoughts on the subject. If you have lived any amount of time at all my dearest daughters, then you have experienced pain in some capacity. It is the very bane of our existence.
As a mother, I wish to spare you the difficulties we encounter.
As a Child I understand the many reasons I won’t.
I did not say I can’t, for I do believe I could on some level offer a path of escape, but I believe too that to spare you this pain would cause greater problems down the road, and would be an insult to your intelligence and ability to handle the things that come across your path.
There are always lessons in the pain. Embrace the lessons.
It would also be dishonoring of the Father, for He is God and I am not. I do not presume to know better than He. I don’t now nor will I ever.
Let me offer this to you instead, a little tidbit I picked up from reading Streams in the Dessert. “Perhaps we are allowed to succumb to the overwhelming pressure so we may be brought to the end of ourselves. Through the trial, we are led to discover the treasure of darkness and the immeasurable wealth of tribulation.”
Do think along those lines for a time, my dearest daughters, and see what happens to your attitude about pain and suffering.
Love,
Mother