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FORGIVENESS: Clearing the record of those who have wronged me
and not holding a grudge.
Vs. Rejection
- SUGGESTED READING:
Sassafras
When the Sun Rose
The Giving Tree
- SUGGESTED SONGS:
Choosing to Forgive
FAMILY ACTIVITY:
- Encourage your children to talk to you about how they feel about
their lives and how they are treated.
- Teach your children to apologize for their mistakes and reinforce
this behavior by telling them that you forgive them when they
apologize, this does not mean that you neglect just punishment, but
do not appear angry when punishing them. When you tell them that you
have forgiven them, do not keep bringing up their fault, that is not
forgiveness. Teach your children to behave in a similar way towards
others.
CLASS ACTIVITY:
- Have students perform a skit showing a friend making a mistake
and, after apologizing, being forgiven.
- Blot some ink on a piece of paper and show it to the class. Ask
them what they see, most will mention the color or what the ink
looks like. Point out that the ink covers only a small part of the
paper and use this as a way to illustrate how people's mistakes and
shortcomings should be seen in the larger context of the
relationship between friends.
HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITY:
- Talk about historical or literary instances in which forgiveness
led to reconciliation and when a lack of forgiveness led to dire
consequences. Discuss the end of the American Civil War and debate
whether the South should have been forgiven or punished.
- Are there some things so horrible that they cannot be forgiven? If
so, what are they and why are they unforgivable, is it a result of
the act that was committed or the frequency of the act?
"It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend"
-William Blake
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness
in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for
him who shall have borne battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to
do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among
ourselves, and with all nations." -Abraham Lincoln's Second
Inaugural Address
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