This is a question my youngest daughter and I have wrestled with for quite some time.
She has been through more in her short life than many people experience in decades. As she’s gotten older, she’s begun asking hard questions about the goodness of God, faith, and what she truly believes. While my own faith has grown stronger through life’s hardships—including the recent struggles with my son, her biological brother—she has experienced those same circumstances very differently.
She feels as though God has abandoned her. She tells me that no matter how much she prays, nothing changes. “Sometimes it just gets worse,” she says.
As her mother, those words break my heart.
More than anything, I want her to experience the peace that comes from knowing God is in control. I want her to understand that not every question will be answered this side of heaven, but that God is still present, even when He feels silent.
But I’ve also come to realize that this is her journey.
She can’t borrow my faith. She has to discover God for herself.
All I can do is live my faith as authentically as I know how, love her well, and do my best to answer the questions she asks—even when I feel completely unqualified. And believe me, there are many times I don’t have the answers.
What I do know is this: God isn’t intimidated by our questions.
He can handle our doubts.
He can handle our anger.
He can handle our disappointment.
He can handle all of it.
There is no shame in wrestling with faith. In fact, throughout Scripture we see people who questioned God, cried out to Him, and struggled to understand His ways. Their questions didn’t push God away—they often drew them closer.
I’ve had my own seasons of doubt. Seasons where I wondered why God allowed certain things to happen. Seasons where I couldn’t see His hand at work. Looking back, I can now see that He never abandoned me, even when I couldn’t feel His presence.
My prayer for my daughter isn’t that she’ll never question. It’s that she’ll never stop seeking.
I pray that one day her faith will be even stronger than mine—not because life became easier, but because she discovered that God remained faithful in the middle of it.
We may never receive all the answers we’re looking for in this life. Some questions will remain unanswered until we stand before Him face to face.
Until then, we have a choice.
We can allow our pain to make us bitter, or we can allow it to draw us closer to the One who promises to never leave us nor forsake us. We can let our suffering isolate us, or we can use it to comfort others who are walking through their own valleys.
I don’t know why bad things happen to good people.
But I do know this:
God is still good when life is not.
And sometimes, faith isn’t having all the answers. It’s choosing to trust the One who does.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.“
Romans 15:13
Unpolished Truth 