How can we teach our children true forgiveness?
True Forgiveness
In an episode of The Mum Show, these Christian moms share their thoughts on how to teach the children how to truly forgive. Marina Magdalena defined what true forgiveness is by emphasizing that it is more than just words. It is releasing both people involved from the negative emotions and bondages.
“True forgiveness is life-giving, it is healing on every level, it is releasing for the forgiver and the forgiven, both sides,” Marina said.
Parenting
But teaching our young children true forgiveness is not that easy. Sometimes, by teaching them to forgive, we neglect what they’re feeling. When we teach them forgiveness, we should also teach them to acknowledge their feelings and what they’ve been through.
“We want to encourage our children to forgive, that’s really important, but we also want to encourage our children to know that their sadness or their fear, or experience has also been validated. We don’t want to brush over one via the other,” Marina added.
Validation
Child therapist Emma Browne also agreed on that matter. As parents, we have the responsibility to teach them both validation and forgiveness.
“It is incredibly important to validate the feeling… When you can see a child is genuinely distressed and upset… really powerful instinctive and impulsive emotional responses. And I think as parents, we need to absolutely validate those feelings. But that doesn’t mean to say that we condone the behavior.”
Our children should also understand that “sorry” isn’t just a shallow word, that it’s not a ticket away from consequences. Forgiveness should come from the heart and it’s a decision that one should make.
“It’s so important that we teach our children that it’s got to come from a place of feeling and a desire to reconnect.”
Read also: A CALL FOR WOMEN TO CARE FOR OPPRESSED CHILDREN
Grow closer to God daily by getting exclusive video teachings on God Today!
Read God’s Word For You Today directly from your phone. Download the Daily Word app now on Google Play and Appstore
Reference: YouTube | GOD TV
