For example, a classroom full of independent, opinionated young people is a perfect setting for teaching repentance. Children get frustrated, they lose their temper, they try to take the easy way out, they have a bad attitude, they don’t think about others, and all of this can happen before 7:55 a.m. Because we know
that we sin, we need to really understand how to repent. This is what we tell children: “Every one of us sins, and so we should expect it. But God promises to forgive us. The first thing to do is to recognize when you mess up: ‘Uh oh, I shouldn’t have done that.’ The next step is to say sorry to God; He is the one we have sinned against: ‘God, I messed up. I am really sorry.’ Then, we need to make it right with anyone else we may have hurt: ‘Friend, please forgive me for saying that. I was angry, and I am sorry.’ We might have to fix something: ‘Let me help pick up the blocks that I knocked down.’ The last step is asking God for help doing what we can’t do: “Please help me stop doing this. I want to stop and I need you to help me do it.”
Essential for this process is the knowledge that there is forgiveness. Without it, we are only condemned for the wrong things we do, and we can become so afraid of that condemnation that we avoid repenting. So, we teach the forgiveness part too. What do we do when someone sins against us? We forgive them, even if they don’t ask. If they ask for our forgiveness, we give it. That doesn’t mean we just say, “I forgive you.” God tells us that true forgiveness means that we don’t bring it up again, we don’t think or talk about it anymore, and we treat that person as if nothing had ever happened. We try to be like God and completely forget the sin. The person is fully restored to our community.
So, here are the steps of repentance: see our sin, feel sorry, say sorry, fix what is broken, and try not to do it again. Here are the steps of forgiveness: Forgive, forget. That’s it.
Notice what is not in that process: excuses, blaming of others, mitigating circumstances, a difficult childhood, past mistakes, shame, guilt, fear, and self-righteousness. Adults especially try to add these extras to God’s simple plan of redemption, but every one of them is beside the point. The point is we sin, and we need to ask for and receive forgiveness.
I believe that this is what God means that we need to believe and see like children. Every time I walk a child through this process, I am restored again to the truths of my faith. I remember what is important, and I see with new eyes the incredible, forgiving, and loving God that we serve.
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:1-4.
Jennifer Cable
Elementary Principal