Teaching Children To Forgive At Christmas
This is the time of year when the magic of Christmas is everywhere. Everything about the season is designed to be exciting and heartwarming, and full of joy for everyone in the family. But children are the most excited by the season, usually, as they wait for that most wonderful night, Christmas Eve, when Santa Claus lands his sleigh on the roof and brings his bag of beautiful things down the chimney and leaves them under the tree.
Whether they admit it or not, most adults also hope to receive special presents, at Christmas. When the mailman leaves a package, or when a brightly wrapped gift appears at work, most adults feel the same anticipation they felt as children, wondering what this wonderful surprise will yield.
But, as most parents learned long ago, the real joy of Christmas isn’t totally about receiving something really special from Santa. There can be just as much joy in the giving as the receiving. And the act of choosing a gift for a loved one or a friend is as spiritually uplifting as opening almost any present. This is something that children are especially attuned to, in their natural desire to please those they love.
In this time that we spend thinking about those we’re close to, and those we love, many of us are reminded that there are those in our circle with whom we’ve had disagreements over the past year. There are people in our lives with whom contact has been broken or lost, completely. As we consider our friends and loved ones, during the holidays, we often find ourselves regretting the circumstances or conversations which led to the dissolution of relationships.
Kids go through the same things as adults, ending friendships and moving away from those they were close to. But since they’re younger and have less experience with relationships, they often take these hard times even harder, than their parents.
Christmas is the perfect time for parents to talk to their children about the tough times they’ve had in the past year, with their friends. It’s a perfect time to teach kids the value of forgiveness, and that, no matter who may have insulted whom, or who may have instigated an estrangement, forgiveness can be empowering and nourishing. Kids will learn, eventually, that no relationship is one-way, and that no matter how it may appear today, both parties have a say in whether a relationship continues or ends.
No matter who thinks they may have been right or wrong, in dealing with a relationship issue, Christmas is the perfect time for parents to set the example of forgiveness. It’s a valuable lesson for every child. Forgiving others whom we feel have wronged us, or forgiving ourselves for wronging someone else-either way is a path to inner peace. And the real message of Christmas is love and forgiveness.
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