For families with little ones (preschool age), this could be a 3-5 minute talk! It doesn’t have to be much. For older children, you can opt in for more of these options to extend your study time together. I recommend doing this with (especially little) children over a meal – whichever meal is the least chaotic in your home (for my family right now, that’s lunch), or saving the questions for while you’re on a walk or playing outside together. Have fun!
1. Read the scripture together: Matthew 18:21-35. The important thing is that you’re reading scripture together! If you’re looking for different ways to engage your children while reading, here are some fun ways to read scripture as a family
Every Reader takes a verse
Ask each child to pick two words they don’t understand to talk about after you read it. (For longer scriptures and younger children, you may need to split up the reading in order to do this.)
Draw a picture of what you read
Act it out as a family (And please send documentation of this to children.sjumc@gmail.com because we could all use a laugh right now!)
Sing it!
Use Legos or dolls to tell the story
2. Tell your kids that this scripture is about forgiveness. Jesus says we should forgive others seventy times seven times. Calculate how much this is with your kids, and tell them that God doesn’t mean we should forgive people exactly this number of times. He is using a large number to say we should always work on forgiveness, lots and lots of times.
3. Discussion Questions (as always, pick and choose which questions you’d like to discuss!):
What do you think it means to forgive?
Does someone have to say sorry and change their behavior to be forgiven?
When is a time you have forgiven someone? When is a time you have been forgiven?
How did you feel after you forgave someone else? How did you feel after someone forgave you?
Are trust and forgiveness the same thing? (Hint: No. It is the person who hurts you who needs to work on earning trust back, and if they don’t, it is not your job to try to trust them again. Forgiveness is different – it means letting go of the anger, with God’s help, when you’re ready, and not wishing for bad things for the other person. It means peace for you. Forgiving over and over or seventy times seven does not mean staying friends with someone who hurts you over and over. This would be a good time to talk about age appropriate boundaries with your children.)
4. Close in Prayer: Dear God, thank you for forgiving us, when we do something wrong. Thank you for helping us learn from our mistakes. Please help us forgive others when they’ve hurt us. Please help us learn more about forgiveness and what it means, and how to honor You and ourselves in our forgiveness practice. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
~ Erynne DeVore, director of Children’s Ministry