Colossians: Forgiveness
Scripture verse: “forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.”
Objectives:
- Children should know what forgiveness means and remember the lines from the Lord’s Prayer about forgiveness.
- Children should know that Jesus forgave us from the cross.
- Children should recall Forgiveness Sunday – what it means and what we do.
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer – again use the Lord’s prayer.
- Review the line about forgiveness; what does it mean? Have anyone ever done anything mean or nasty to us? Have we ever done anything mean or nasty to others? Try to get specific examples. Have we forgiven that person? Have we said we are sorry when we do something that hurts someone? How many times do we forgive someone?
- We begin Great Lent with Forgiveness Sunday. On this day, the Church teaches us to ask forgiveness of each other. Sometimes we have done something that hurt or upset the other person on purpose; sometimes we don’t even know it. Demonstrate for the children how we circle the sanctuary, each asking the other for forgiveness; teach them how to ask forgiveness and forgive in sign language.
- Jesus forgave us from the cross. Review the story of the crucifixion in the Children’s Bible with the children. Remember how He prayed, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Review the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Repeat these important lines with the children.
- Are there other Bible stories of forgiveness? How about Joseph and his brothers? Read this in your children’s Bibles.
- Make a forgiveness bouquet. Use stems of pipe cleaners, and flowers of cupcake papers. First write “Forgive me” or “I forgive you” in the bottom of each flower cup. Poke the pipe cleaner through the bottom and bend it over to secure. Make several and put them all together in a bouquet with tin foil or a paper cone. Leaves can be made from two layers of green paper glued around a pipe cleaner. Remind the children to keep the bouquet handy. During the week, whenever they need to ask forgiveness for something (disobeying, yelling, angry words, etc.), they should take a flower from their bouquet and give it to the other person and ask him or her to forgive them.
Doesn’t forgiveness give you a wonderful feeling?
7. Another craft option would be to take the story of St. Dionysios, cut it out, and glue to a piece of construction paper:
Dionysios was born in a rich family, but became a monk when he was a teen. He was known for his forgiving spirit. One day, at the monastery, a stranger ran up to Dionysios. The stranger had killed a man, and that man’s family was hunting him down. Would Dionysios hide him, please? Dionysios found out that the man had killed Dionysios’s own brother. He was very sad, but forgave the man right away. And, when his family arrived, he told them that the stranger had already left by another road. The forgiven man later became a monk, a brother in the same monastery as Dionysios.
8. Close with prayer.