Teenager question - why doesn't God answer

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Ontheway

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My teenage son came home and asked: why doesn’t God answer my prayers?

He has a friend whose sister was born with some abnormality which puts her life in peril. My son’s question is “why would God do this to someone?”

I know some of the adult responses to this, by at his age those answers don’t go very far.

Is there an way to reply to these questions and reach a 17 year old?
 
Tell him that God gave us a very complex natural life and body, and often things don’t go right. That’s why people become ill, get old, and die. And sometimes the trouble happens at very young ages.

Even if God fixed every physical problem, we would still wear out and die because that is what happens in the world we have now. But in Heaven all will be corrected and then some.

(I hope this works)

ICXC NIKA
 
Ontheway said:
My teenage son came home and asked: why doesn’t God answer my prayers?

He has a friend whose sister was born with some abnormality which puts her life in peril. My son’s question is “why would God do this to someone?”

I know some of the adult responses to this, by at his age those answers don’t go very far.

Is there an way to reply to these questions and reach a 17 year old?
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I think this is a very emotional question. Those question, as far as I’ve experienced, can’t be answered just like that. I mean, I think there needs to be a dialougue of some sort.
One advice: act as if you’re really understanding (which I hope you are). Whenever I ask difficult questions I want to be understood and not just having a question answered (although some sort of answer would be good).
I’ve been told something like this: God is sometimes mysterious but always gives some sort of answer (which is love).

I really like listening to this Priest: youtube.com/watch?v=eL6Yrdszyns
 
This question really has no easy answer and is a question that all of us have surely asked at some point when we have seen or endured suffering. Even Mother Teresa questioned where Jesus was in the midst of the suffering she witnessed every day.

However, I’ve found that the best answer I can give anyone (and even to myself) is that our life is like a tapestry but we, on this side of eternity, can only see the backside of it. Those threads of suffering, anger, despair, etc. may look ugly and out of place on the backside but once we are on the other side of eternity and can see the finished product, it’ll all make sense and we will see that those threads were essential to its beauty.

This example is certainly not my innovation but I heard it many years ago and it has always stuck with me.

That’s the best I’ve got…
 
Well, I am 19, not much older than your son and this is how I see it: that these hardships in life can bring out good things in both the afflicted and those close to them and teach valuable lessens. Suppose someone very educated and successful comes to have an idolatrous-type relationship to academic and financial success. And they would want their children to we successful such as them. But, then that person has a child born with a mental deformity like Down’s syndrome or something. By their previous thinking, such a life as their own child’s would not have been worth living. But, from what I have heard and read about people with special needs children, they do not regret that their kids exist. If anything, their kids teach them important lessons in return like that success is not everything.

Without people in need, there would be no altruism, generosity, or other similar virtues we hold dear. If everyone was just fine, we would be absorbed within ourselves. But, in a world of both natural and moral evil, we are constantly challenged to come outside of ourselves either for family, friends, or strangers.

I hope this answer is okayish. I am no genius.
 
Ontheway said:
My teenage son came home and asked: why doesn’t God answer my prayers?

He has a friend whose sister was born with some abnormality which puts her life in peril. My son’s question is “why would God do this to someone?”

I know some of the adult responses to this, by at his age those answers don’t go very far.

Is there an way to reply to these questions and reach a 17 year old?
Click to expand...
This is a very theological question. We have been born into a broken world. A world of sin and death. A world of disease and suffering. It wasn’t always like this. God gave Adam and Eve a special type of grace that allowed them not to experience these things. This was one of the many things that separated them from the rest of nature. But then they disobeyed God. Separating them from God and his love. They passed on their original sin. Now, we don’t inherit the guilt of original sin. But we do inherit the consequences. Like being separated from God, and also having the nature to sin. Separation from God by original sin can cause abnormalities like this. It’s not Gods doing, it’s our own. But if we come to Christ, in the future Christ will take away all these sufferings and problems we have. This include things like disability’s and abnormalities.
 
slh3016 said:
However, I’ve found that the best answer I can give anyone (and even to myself) is that our life is like a tapestry but we, on this side of eternity, can only see the backside of it. Those threads of suffering, anger, despair, etc. may look ugly and out of place on the backside but once we are on the other side of eternity and can see the finished product, it’ll all make sense and we will see that those threads were essential to its beauty.

This example is certainly not my innovation but I heard it many years ago and it has always stuck with me.

That’s the best I’ve got…
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Love this!
 
Please make sure he understands that persistence in prayer is necessary. Sometimes God doesn’t answer our prayers right away because he has a plan that hasn’t fully come to fruition yet… and sometimes he wants us to persevere. If it seems like our prayers haven’t been answered, it isn’t because they haven’t helped- we just don’t actually see the good they are doing because we don’t see the whole picture
 
redbetta said:
Well, I am 19, not much older than your son and this is how I see it: that these hardships in life can bring out good things in both the afflicted and those close to them and teach valuable lessens. Suppose someone very educated and successful comes to have an idolatrous-type relationship to academic and financial success. And they would want their children to we successful such as them. But, then that person has a child born with a mental deformity like Down’s syndrome or something. By their previous thinking, such a life as their own child’s would not have been worth living. But, from what I have heard and read about people with special needs children, they do not regret that their kids exist. If anything, their kids teach them important lessons in return like that success is not everything.

Without people in need, there would be no altruism, generosity, or other similar virtues we hold dear. If everyone was just fine, we would be absorbed within ourselves. But, in a world of both natural and moral evil, we are constantly challenged to come outside of ourselves either for family, friends, or strangers.

I hope this answer is okayish. I am no genius.
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Your answer is more than okayish. I value your (name removed by moderator)ut, as from a person who can better understand how a young mind works. Thank you and God bless.
 
Well, I am 18 years old and I believe that adult responses can be very beneficial to him. Sugar-coating it and making it lighter won’t do anything but hurt him. Just tell him that God manifests Himself differently to all people, and although suffering can seem like nothing more than a terrible situation, we are always called to find the Light of Christ in the midst of our struggles and go to Him, for He has said, “Come to me, all you that labour, and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

May God bless you and your son always! 🙂
 
God always answers our prayers. Sometimes, we may not like His answer or we don’t recognize His answer. As slh3016 so eloquently put it, we do not always see or understand His answer in this world. Surely God knows what is best for us even if we don’t “get it.”

I also agree that 17 is old enough to be spoken to as an adult.

May God bless your son and bring him peace.
 
God always hears our prayers. He wants us to pray because we change when we pray.

Scripture says…The Sheep and the Goats, Matt 25
31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
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34“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
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37“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
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40“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
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When we see suffering and make the decision to help them, God will reward us in the next life. There is still hunger and thirst, sickness and imprisonment in this world. When we show mercy, this is when we are most like God. Continue on in this way for this is how we show that we are making the choice to be sons and daughters of the most high God. Trust the results to his mercy because he can be trusted.
 
When you know the answer let me know as I have the mind of a child. If God is changeless and perfect, any change would be from the perfect. If it was His Will that someone was cured, it was His Will from all time. We do not change His Mind with our prayers. But Jesus told us to pray. Even petitions as prayers are an act of worship. Why doesn’t he fix things like a magician? We cannot presume to know or understand His Will. As other wiser posts have stated, we live in a broken world.
However I do know that, without the broken, the afflicted, the lonely, the forsaken, we would lack the ability to show the love of the Samaritan. Such a loss would be greater than than this world could sustain. In our interactions with this broken world we are His hands. We must have something to put before the Lord. These people give us this chance and must be cherished for their existence.
 
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