Mediating Forgiveness

We had a situation come up where it was the perfect opportunity to learn about forgiveness.

After reading Matthew 18:21-25, my daughter said, "I better forgive or I'll go to prison!"

Thus began a mediated discussion on what kind of prison unforgiveness is. To help my babes get the idea of a prison in our heart, I did the following:

First we cut out a picture of someone who needed to forgive.

My daughter cut out Humpty Dumpty. Humpty needs to do some forgiving.

In my craft cupboard, I found the long-forgotten craft grids (or whatever they are called!) that someone gave me once upon a time. They looked a bit like a prison so we placed them over Humpty.

Then we compared how well we can see with the grid in front of our eyes.

The observation was that we can still see things but not very clearly.

Then we kept adding grids in front of our vision. This was the same as remaining in unforgiveness and having our hearts harden with bitterness. They pointed out that it was very difficult to see through the girds.

Much like a bitter and unforgiving heart. We will continue to live life but everything we encounter we won't see precisely or accurately because unforgiveness colors our perception.

Look at Humpty! He can't be seen for all the unforgiveness and bitterness.

We discuss about why it's important to forgive and to walk in love.

We decide that we want to be people who forgive.

and Humpty does too!