Biblical character education wouldn’t be complete without lessons on forgiveness. This includes helping children learn how to show grace, restore relationships, and follow Jesus’ example of love. Using these hands-on crafts, engaging activities, and printable lesson plans will help children better understand what forgiveness looks like in everyday life and why it matters according to Scripture.
How do you define forgiveness for kids
Forgiveness is choosing to let go of bad feelings towards someone who has hurt you. Forgiveness isn’t necessarily a feeling; it’s a conscious choice. It doesn’t have to be a one-time event either. Sometimes forgiveness means choosing each day to forgive the person for the harm they caused us in the past. With God’s help, we can overcome the hurt, but it might take time.
Forgiveness is important because God calls us to forgive. When we forgive, it helps to release us from past hurts so we can move forward without bitterness.
Forgiveness Bible Lessons for Kids
Are you looking for an engaging way to teach children about the character trait of forgiveness? Use the Bible story of the Prodigal Son to help facilitate the learning. Our scripted lessons, printable crafts, and discussion questions are a great resource to help kids learn about this important character trait.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT forgiveness?
One of the core messages of the Bible is forgiveness, centred around God’s great love for us. We live in a broken world, yet God made a plan to redeem the world through Jesus. It is through Jesus that we have forgiveness from our sins and hope for a future with Him. Without Christ’s redeeming blood, we wouldn’t have forgiveness and a way back to God.
And God calls us to forgive each other, too. There are many verses about forgiveness in the Bible. Here are a few verses:
Psalm 103:12 – “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
Matthew 6:14 – “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
Luke 6:37 – “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”
Ephesians 4:32 – “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
1 John 1:9 – “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins.”
Alongside Bible verses, there are also several poignant stories centred on the theme of forgiveness, including the Prodigal Son, Joseph Forgiving His Brothers, and The Unforgiving Servant.
HOW DO YOU TEACH KIDS ABOUT FORGIVENESS?
Activities to teach bigger kids about what the Bible says about forgiveness.
Take time to teach children the definition of forgiveness and explore different examples of what forgiveness looks like. These examples can include stories from the Bible where people chose to forgive, as well as modern, real-life situations kids may face. Discuss these stories and scenarios, then apply the material by having children role-play situations in which they must demonstrate forgiveness. Use hands-on crafts and activities to help them engage with the topic. Before they head home, challenge them to practice forgiveness throughout the week.
Bible Sword Drill
Using a Sword Drill to introduce children to the Bible is an effective way to help them navigate the pages of Scripture and understand the relationships among the books of the Bible. A Sword Drill is a simple exercise in which children are given a verse to look up and then must search for it. The first kid to locate the verse is the winner.
To help kids with this, show them where the Table of Contents is in the Bible. Then teach them how to locate the book in the Table of Contents, flip to the page, and search for the chapter and verse. At first, this will be a time-consuming and awkward task for kids to manage. There will be some hand-holding and guidance. But this is an important skill for kids to have, so fostering this skill is worth the time.
For printable cards with the verses, check out Forgiveness Bible Lesson for Older Kids.
BIBLE STORY about Forgiveness - The Prodigal Son
Dive into forgiveness with the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Bible stories are an effective means of teaching biblical character traits. Taking time to read a story about forgiveness, discuss it, and complete an activity that connects to the story is a great way to solidify learning.
The story of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11-32 centres around the theme of forgiveness.
After reading the story, discuss the concept of forgiveness. Children can examine how the father in the story forgave his son completely, whereas the older brother struggled with forgiveness because he felt his brother did not deserve celebration. The older brother resented the younger brother, while the father forgave and loved.
Then, do an activity to reinforce the learning. The Forgiveness Bible Lesson for Little Learners includes a simple “Welcome Home” craft to remind children of the story's conclusion, when the lost son is welcomed home with open arms and a big celebration. For this craft, they will color and cut out a picture of a door. Then they will glue this over a ‘welcome home’ scene, so the door can still open and reveal the party inside.
You’ll find the same printable craft in Forgiveness Bible Lessons for Older Kids, as well as a writing reflection page where kids reflect on what the prodigal son was thinking while feeding the pigs. This is also included in the Forgiveness for Little Learners, in a craft format rather than a reflection page.
Click here for more ideas on teaching the story of the Prodigal Son.
MORE Crafts and activities to teach about forgiveness
Forgiveness Envelope: Have kids draw a time when someone else’s actions hurt them. If they are not able to think of an idea, they are welcome to draw a hypothetical example. Then fold it up and put it in an envelope. Then pray over the envelopes and give the hurts to God, symbolizing that the child is forgiving the person who hurt them.
Whiteboard Eraser Illustration: Take time to brainstorm different sins and write them on a whiteboard. Try to fill the board (or a section of the board) with a lot of ideas. Then talk about how this is like the human heart. It is covered in sin. But when we ask for forgiveness, Jesus washes our sins away and forgives us. Take an eraser and start erasing the writing off the board.
Egg Illustration: This is similar to the one above, but it uses a hard-boiled egg. Use a Sharpie to write sins all over a hard-boiled egg. Then start peeling the egg and tell kids that when we ask Jesus for forgiveness, he takes away all the sin and we are left with a clean and soft heart.
Songs about forgiveness
Music is a powerful tool and can be a great way to help kids (and adults) reflect on a topic. Consider playing one or more of the following worship songs for children to reflect on. Give them paper to color on or play-dough to fiddle with while they listen. Some of the songs are about God’s great love for us and His forgiveness of our sins, and others are about the importance of forgiving others because God has forgiven us.
WOULD YOU LIKE MORE LESSONS to build godly character?
This lesson on contentment is part of a seven-part Character Education mini-series. Other lessons include contentment, kindness, courage, honesty, perseverance, and self-control.
