What is one strategy you can share with me about getting children interested in forgiving?
If parents show an interest in forgiving, and the parents show that they (the parents) are drawn to this moral virtue (rather than seeing it as a grim obligation), then I think the children will begin to take an interest in forgiving, not be afraid of it, and even try it with the encouragement of the parents. When a parent is reading a picture book to children, as one example of a parent showing interest, let us suppose there is conflict between two story characters. The parent might consider a short stopping of the reading of the text and ask this: “Look at all this conflict going on the story. Now let us suppose that the characters started to forgive and receive forgiveness from one another. What might that look like? What do you think would happen if this one forgave and this one was sorry for acting badly?”
