nah, those are good answers; but suffering is subjective, i guess. People even take advantage, pretend to be suffering to manipulate others, or pretend
not to be suffering to maintain ego...and how do you explain this to a kid? And we're not done; people intentionally suffer in pursuit of some goal, and avoid suffering in pursuit of other goals. It would be nice if one could separate these from "obvious distress," but that is not so easy either, at least not always.
Parents allow their children to suffer emotionally in order to learn some truth, at least if they are determined to raise emotional adults, but then there is physical suffering, too. And either could be self-inflicted, or the result of chance. Someone riding a dirt bike who breaks their arm could be said to have self-inflicted suffering, but we still help them set their arm.
But there is a different definition of suffering, i think, reflected in "you think you are in good shape, but actually you are a mess," which i'll dig up in Scripture if you don't beat me to it--which is in contrast to say a guy who has been beat up and is laying in a ditch. So, i'm just kind of rambling here now, but eventually i will arrive at "there are times when one should intervene, and times when one should not." Which will of course be different for everyone.
Linear Mode
