Wordful Wednesday...

I have missed out on the last couple of Wordful Wednesday's so I'll try to make up for it here.  If I can think of anything to say on this topic:

June 23 - Repentance and Forgiveness - If any of you have never done anything wrong please raise your hand!  All of us have had need to seek out forgiveness, to give forgiveness and to repent. How do you teach your children about repentance and forgiveness? "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness," (Family Proclamation, paragraph 7)

There are many object lessons to show repentance.  There is the one where you have a dirty jar of water, and you add some bleach and make it clean again.  There is the one where you tie helium balloons to a small strawberry basket full of rocks (sins) and how, when you take the sins out, you are lifted up.  But the one I like the most is this one:

To show the five R's of repentance: recognition, regret, relinquishment of sin (including confession), restitution and resolution.

Equipment: A hammer, nails, wood putty, sandpaper, and a thick board.

Procedure: Discuss each of the five R's of repentance with the class.
Explain that the board is like ourselves and the nails are like sins we commit. Take a nail and label it with a name (Gossiping, stealing, lying, etc.). Hammer it into the board. Repeat until several nails are in the board.

Express shock at how badly the board looks (Recognition). State how much you would like to have the board smooth again and how badly you feel that the nails were put there (regret). Take action to remove the nails. When the nails are removed, tell how determined you are that no more nails be put into your board (relinquishment). Carefully apply wood putty to the nail holes, and allow it to dry while you discuss ways to recompense various sins (restitution:). When putty is dry, use sandpaper to remove any
lumps and make board smooth once more (resolution).

Discuss what would have happened to the board if any of the steps would have been skipped (restitution could not be accomplished without relinquishing the sin, relinquishment would not have happened without recognition or regret, etc.). In order to fully repent, all five steps must be taken.

I like this one because you can see that the sin is not simply removed with no sign of it every happening.  The things we do have been part of our life, we have taken steps to remove it, but we do not forget it was ever there.  We remember to remember not to do it again.   This does not mean we have to keep pointing out the 'wood putty' spots in our lives, even to ourselves.  We can move on and FORGIVE our selves, as well.

FORGIVENESS QUOTES:
"There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love." - Bryant H. McGill
"To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love.  In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness." -Robert Muller
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." -Lewis B. Smedes


I have found that not forgiving someone is the heaviest burden to carry.  A while ago I was so upset over a situation, and I wanted so badly to take care of it.  I thought of all the perfect things to say to this person who had basically attacked me under the guise of 'kindness'.  The more I thought about it, the more I felt obligated to point out to her the follies of her thinking.  It consumed me.  I thought about it while folding laundry, while doing dishes, going on walks...all the time.  And I got so tired of it.  At church one Sunday we were singing one of my most favorite hymns, How Gentle God's Commands.  Here are the words:

   How gentle God’s commands!
How kind his precepts are!
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord
And trust his constant care.

 Beneath his watchful eye,
His Saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guard his children well.

 Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heav’nly Father’s throne
And sweet refreshment find.

 His goodness stands approved,
Unchanged from day to day;
I’ll drop my burden at his feet
And bear a song away.

It talks of casting our burdens on the Lord, and bearing a song away.  I had an image flash through my mind.  It was me and I was putting this burden of being upset with this person at his feet and walking away.  I was shining and I was taking my song with me.  I knew that He knew this person better than I did, and that if I tried to love her, if even from a distance, that she would be all right, and that I would be all right too.  I felt forgiveness for her, and for myself in holding a grudge.  (I should point out here that I didn't think I was holding a grudge but I was...should perhaps self-reflect a little more often!).  

It has been a life-changing feeling for me.  As forgiveness always is.