Forgiveness

           Opening Prayer

           First: tell the children the story called “The potato’’. In order to make the story more interesting, the spiritist teacher could bring to class a rotten potato and a healthy one. Please also bring a backpack to class in order to place the potato into it whilst you tell them the story. It would be interesting as well to draw a little face on the potatoes, to attract the children’s attention.

          Click here to see the story.

           The spiritist teacher could, before telling the story, invite or raffle some children to interact during the narration. The children will play the animals from the farm. As soon as the spiritist teacher tells the story and says the name of the animals, the children will imitate that animal.

           After telling the story to the children, the spiritist teacher should talk to them about it. Please highlight the importance of forgiveness, as well as realising the positive and negative influence they receive. Please make them aware that the incarnate and disincarnate good spirits will always advice us towards the path of goodness, forgiveness, patience, love and friendship.

           Second: stimulate a dialog around the story.

           How do we behave? Do you keep sadness and grief inside of you? We know it is not easy to forgive, but through practice it becomes easier.

           What does forgiveness truly mean? It means to feel you really forgave what happened at your own heart. It also means to understand the other person, without keeping sadness or grief. It also means never wishing someone evil or plotting against them.

           If I forgive someone, will it make me feel good? The act of forgiveness is really good for the one who forgives. If we don’t forgive, it could be compared to keeping garbage inside your heart. Science has proved that forgiveness is a source of health. When we feel hurt or sad with someone, we feel more fragile. The feeling of being hurt could be compared to letting a tiny bit of poison circulate through our blood. This will produce bad reactions in our body, leading to diseases. On the other hand, we will increase our immune defences by behaving with tolerance, indulgence and by avoiding feelings of resentment.

           Should you revenge? Is it right to revenge? We should not seek revenge. Let’s remember the whole world is conditioned to the Law of Cause and Effect. Jesus taught if someone strikes us on the right cheek; turn to him the other also. He didn’t condemn the defence, but the revenge. In the face of evil, Jesus stimulates goodness. Faced with indifference, He disseminates compassion. When we see revenge, we should offer forgiveness. He also taught that we need to be humble when faced with price; we need to practice charity when faced with selfishness; we need to practice love when faced with hate.

           What happens with the person who made the mistake, if I forgive him? Forgiving someone does not mean the person who made the mistake is right. This won’t mean the person will not be subject to the law of Cause and Effect; the Divine Justice will take care of it. Independent of our attitudes, the Divine Justice will be fulfilled. It does not require our action for it to take place.

           Forgive and be forgiven; as Jesus said: we need to forgive ourselves for the mistakes we made, as we forgive those who make mistakes against us.

           It is important to put ourselves on the offender’s position. The person who hurt us might have been through a difficult moment; faced with serious problems. Whoever hurts and offends hasn’t learned yet the true meaning of the word love. We won’t feel offended anymore when we start to understand that the person who hurts is only behaving this way because he/she hasn’t learned the true meaning of happiness.

           We should do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Jesus said we should always forgive. He even told us to “Forgive Seventy Times Seven”. We know it’s hard, but our efforts joined with prayer will make it easier. It is important to forgive ourselves because we are imperfect spirits; subject to making mistakes. We should make efforts to avoid it, by doing things better each day. If we make a mistake, let’s forgive ourselves and move forward; making it better next time.

           Every person who forgives, feels much more at ease, lighter, calmer and sleeps better. Forgiveness is an intelligent attitude.

          Third - activity 1: please distribute one white sheet of paper to each child. You should also give them part of newspapers that contain situations involving more than one person on it. Please ask the children to create a story based on the picture.

          Activity 2: please distribute one of the following drawings below to the children, so they can paint it and write two phrases about the importance of forgiveness.

           Potato 1      Potato 2      Potato 3

          Please find here a text that we suggest you to distribute to the children.

Forgiveness: an intelligent attitude

          The act of forgiveness is good for the person who forgives, since by forgiving we feel good and relaxed about ourselves. When we decide not to forgive, feel hurt and grief, we end up feeling our hearts with rubbish.

          The true forgiveness is the one that comes from the heart. It also includes never wishing anything bad to happen to the person who offended you. As Jesus taught us, we should forgive seventy times seven; that is, we should forgive everyone at all times.


          Closing Prayer

Class suggested being suitable for: 2nd cycle (9 to 10 years old) and 3rd cycle (11 to 12 years old).

Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.

         

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