The word suffer carries two distinct meanings: “to allow,” as in “suffering the little children to come unto me,” and “to feel pain.” Both meanings are joined in the origin of the word that means “to bear.”
Bear itself means both “to carry” and “to bear up” or “endure.” When a woman bears a child, she carries it in her womb until the time of birth, then in pain she brings the child into the world, and yet her labor and pain bring with it a bonding and love between mother and infant. Spiritual birth follows a like pattern in that it too involves a labor of pain which brings a bonding of love.