Again, to be clear, I don't think God allows/permits/advocates suffering as a mass level and I think that at a personal level, we do enough of it to ourselves. BUT, IF God does allow for suffering, the only way I can RECONCILE that with God being a loving God is to view it like a parent that allows a child to suffer so that they can learn.
I hope that is more clear.
*Head spinning* I understand where you're going - the difference between us is simply that I don't see a need to "reconcile" the issue to uphold a preconception I have about the lord. I did way too much of that back in the day. "Jehovah just needs to prove to Satan that humans can't live in a world of earthquakes and other natural disasters!" I just weigh the evidence, and say "Either God hates us, he has no power, he isn't real, or he doesn't care." You know God personally, apparently, and know that none of those things can be true. Hence - reconciling seemingly impossible concepts.
To me, that seems a little like when they interview neighbors and relatives of convicted criminals. Inevitably, they can't imagine that the convict could have done such a thing. "He was such a quiet boy". And maybe they're right.
LOL, nothing so dramatic, it is just VERY personal, the only person I have shared it with is my wife and that's because she was instrumental in me finding Jesus.
I'm going to guess, then - that you provided God with a kind of "fleece test" involving your wife? Blink once if I'm close. ;-) Were you ever a JW? Just trying to figure out a timeline, since I don't think I've ever (actually) come across a Christian who found Jesus/God without ever opening a bible. Did it go, then - Find Jesus - Become a JW - Leave JW?