Children’s Message on Forgiveness: Letting Go

In this children’s message, kids experience a weight being lifted as they discover the power of choosing to forgive.

Scripture: Ephesians 4:26

Supplies:

• Bible
• bucket of medium-sized rocks (1 per child)

Hold On

Give each of the children a rock to hold.

Say: Think for a moment about a time someone did something wrong to you. Maybe someone said something mean to you. Maybe a friend told a lie about you. Pause. When someone does something wrong to us, we have a choice. We can hold onto our anger and be mad at the person who hurt us, or we can let our anger go and forgive the person.

Let’s see what happens when we hold onto our anger. Everyone stand up and hold onto your rock. We are going to sing a song and do the motions. But you have to hold onto the rock the whole time.

Lead the children in singing and doing the motions to a song such as “Jesus Loves Me” or another familiar one. Encourage the children to hold onto their rocks the whole time.

Ask:

• What was it like doing the motions with the rock in your hand?
• How is this like what happens when we hold onto our anger?

Forgive and Let Go

Open your Bible to Ephesians 4:26.

Say: God tells us that we can be angry but not to sin. And we are not to let the sun go down on our anger. That means don’t hang onto our anger!

Ask:

• How can we forgive others when they hurt us?
• How can we ask for forgiveness when we hurt others?

Say: We can pray to God and ask him to help us forgive others. We can ask others to forgive us when we hurt them. God loves us and doesn’t want us to be miserable from carrying around our anger. When we let go of our anger, God helps us feel better.

Ask the children to each place his or her rock back in the bucket and silently ask God’s help in forgiving the person who’s hurt him or her. Then sing the song again with free hands.

Pray: Dear God, help us remember how hard it was to carry a rock and still praise you. Help us forgive others when they hurt us so we don’t have to carry around our anger.

This children’s message comes from The Humongous Book of Children’s Messages. In this resource you’ll find more than 170 quick-prep children’s messages. For even more ideas, check out these posts!