Forgiveness - Term 4

Forgiveness

Alexander Pope (Poet, not a Papal Pope), once wrote ' To err is human, to forgive divine', and this will be very much the theme of this term.

Forgiveness is not only a concept from the Bible, though it is mentioned many times, the idea of forgiveness is also a spiritual one, whereby it has an impact on both sides of the act of forgiving.

The act of forgiving can release you from many burdens or from 'holding a grudge', which can restrict YOUR choices and happiness.

We often hear children say 'I'm not playing if he's playing', and this stays through life - 'I'm not going to your wedding if she's going'.  In these circumstance , the only one to suffer is you.

Look to yourself to start forgiving and then forgiveness will come your way.

Collective Worship

Monday 1st March - 10am login for a 10.10am start

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aaf16aec857694fd7892364594010dcc8%40thread.tacv2/1599741755891?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%226ba3ae10-e5e7-47c9-a20b-d0b1dba2f93f%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22a7b94992-0acd-47a4-9b38-e03e704d4536%22%7d

or

Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

Collective Worship

Here is the link for the Collective Worship get together on the 5th March.  1pm for a 1.10pm start.

Hope it works:  

Click here to join the meeting

or

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3aaf16aec857694fd7892364594010dcc8%40thread.tacv2/1614347654926?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%226ba3ae10-e5e7-47c9-a20b-d0b1dba2f93f%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22a7b94992-0acd-47a4-9b38-e03e704d4536%22%7d

Accidents Happen. 

Sometimes people do things that hurt us or break things, but they don’t mean to.  Sometimes, these actions are daft and can be a 3^rd or 4^th action in the ‘chain’.  This doesn’t mean that the actions haven’t hurt us – either physically or emotionally – but this wasn’t intended.

One of the most common questions I, and all adults, will ask when something happens is ‘Did they do it on purpose?’ Most of the time the answer is ‘No’ or ‘don’t know’.  This is where forgiveness, in today’s story, is important.

When someone does something that they didn’t mean to, it’s important to forgive and work out what can be done to make it better.  It’s also important to look at what happened and think about how we can do things differently so that the same thing doesn’t happen again.

Later this term, we will look at how forgiveness of deliberate actions is important, but today let’s think about how we can all be happier when we forgive mistakes.

This video is all about what can happen if we ‘bear a grudge’.

Jesus Forgiving Peter

The following video show how Jesus forgave Peter after he had denied him.

I think that the message associated with this story is that despite our best efforts, sometimes we still let people down.  We can do it through fear or peer pressure (as Peter did), or through forgetfulness (I'm definitely of that!).  

In Peter's case, he felt he wasn't able to stand up for what he believed in as it would have endangered his life.  I think that if he HAD have acknowledged Jesus, then Jesus would have felt guilty for whatever would have happened to Peter.  That would have then made things even more complicated!

• Should Peter have admitted to being Jesus' friend?
• Should Jesus have told Peter what was going to happen?
• Should Jesus have forgiven Peter?

I' not sure about the answer to the first two, but the last one is a 'Yes' from me.

It still makes me think though - is it OK to let someone down if it doesn't change anything ?  Peter saying 'NO' didn't change what was happening to Jesus; it just made his own path easier.

Not easy!