Red Letter Challenge Kids: The 11-Day Discipleship Experience for KidsSample

Day 5: Challenged to Forgive Like Jesus

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

Some people misunderstand parts of the Bible. Because they read about how we are special, unique, and loved, they assume that we do not have to tolerate anything that does not make us feel those things. 

They say that if anyone hurts or disagrees with you, they no longer need to be in your life. 

One way they explain this is to have you imagine that you are a house surrounded by a white fence and a gate. The house and yard represent you and all the places that you go. Anyone who disagrees with you, says something opposite of what you want to hear, or is hurtful should be told to leave. You can open your gate, push them out, and close that gate behind them so that they cannot come back in. 

But there is a major problem with that; the Bible says the opposite:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32

Jesus says that people WILL hurt you. They WILL betray you and disagree with you. So we are left with a problem. If we just remove everyone from our lives that hurt us, how many people would be left in our house? 

None. We’d be all alone. There are lots and lots of lonely people who exist in the world today.

God never intended for us to live life alone. The only way we will have friendships is if we open that gate and welcome people in. Never mind that they come at bad times when we are busy, forget to latch the gate behind them, and bring a mess.

Besides, are you spotless anyways? No. We all have messy lives. If we never let people into our mess and practice forgiveness, we will sit alone in our dusty and empty house. That’s no way to live. Instead, offer others the forgiveness and grace that God first offered you. Forgiven people become forgiving people. 

Open that gate. Let people in.

Challenge

Forgive someone who hurt you today. It might be something that happened to you today, or maybe it was a hurt that happened a long time ago. Forgiveness will help us to fix our friendships.