Sharing Time - June Week 4 - Repentance & Forgiveness

The topic for this week is "When I repent I can be forgiven." 

There are a few different (but very similar) object lessons involving how sin can get us dirty and how when we repent we can be forgiven and made clean again.

One involves sticking dots (or maybe splotches) on yourself or someone else as you talk about sins we might make.  The second is to use a picture of a person (like the one found on Parenting in the Latter-days), making smears on it with peanut butter, frosting or something else gooey.  And the third is to use a volunteer hand and some syrup.  As you talk about the sins, squirt a little more syrup over the hands until they're covered (you'll need a bowl to catch the overflow). 

I like the splotch-ey dot idea best (I made them different colors because there are all sorts of different sins out there...).  Whichever idea you use, I like another idea from Little LDS Ideas to finish out and explain the object lesson.  Print out the phrase, "When I repent I can be forgiven" in a large font and then cut each individual word apart. 

Hide the words around the primary room underneath random chairs.  After affixing the dots (or covering something/one in goo) tell the children to look under their chairs to help figure out what can help you get clean again.  Have the kids bring them up, figure out the correct word order and read the sentence to the rest of the primary.

Next, we need to delve a little more deeply into what it means to repent.  I found a catchy idea on another post from Little LDS Ideas that talks about the ABCD's of repentance.  I always learn (and remember, this is the important part) new information better when I am taught some sort of trick.  This works perfect for that! 

While I really like the one I found, I ended up making my own because I wanted to change the letter C just a little bit.  It's important to talk about how we must do our best to make reparations for or "fix" our mistakes.  We can't always, but we should always try.

You could cover up each line (or cut them apart and put them up one at a time), but it might be fun, especially with senior primary, to see if they can guess what each letter stands for before telling them.  As you go through each step, make sure they understand what it means.

To help them remember, I would go over each letter each time you uncover one.  Then at the end, cover them up (one at a time again, or all at once) and see if they can remember what each letter stands for. 

To test their knowledge of the steps and how to use them in everyday life, I found a pyramid game on lds dot org.  Read a situation (or re talk about the situations you used earlier to add your splotches/syrup/peanut butter) and then roll the pyramid.  Ask the child who rolled to tell you what they should do in the situation for the step that is facing them.  Or you could do the step that's facing down if figuring out which side is facing them seems too hard.  The steps on lds dot org match up pretty well, but not exactly, so I adapted the pyramid for our ABCD's.

Simply right click to save it as a picture, print it out, cut, fold and glue where it tells you.

In closing, read the scripture mentioned in the Sharing Time outline, Mosiah 26:30 which says,

"Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me." 

If you didn't take the opportunity while going through the steps, make sure you talk about how Heavenly Father will forgive each time we sincerely ask for forgiveness (we have to MEAN IT).  Even after we've promised never to do it again.  We all make the same mistakes over and over, and as long as are truly sorry, we can be forgiven over and over.

Did you know there's a Forgiveness Day? Well, now you do and it happens to be this month (on the 26th)! I think it's very important that as we teach about seeking forgiveness for ourselves, we teach the importance of forgiving others. Kids need this lesson a lot less that we adults do, but it's good to mention that as we are trying to be like God, we need to work hard to forgive like Him.  In fact, we need to forgive everyone, not just those that ask our forgiveness! 

Challenge all our kids (and the teachers, too!) to think of anyone who's made them upset and to pray for help in forgiving for Forgiveness Day.  As we forgive, we feel more peace and joy in our lives.  I am always amazed at how following the commandments brings such abundant blessings!

Hope you have a wonderful week!!