Teaching Forgiveness | Part 4

Parenting On Purpose

When Your Child Is Hurt

This may be one of the most if not the most difficult thing about being a parent, watching your child hurt. Whether it is physically hurt, being sick or emotionally hurting it pains us to see. Many of us would do anything to carry that burden for our child. So what can we do when our child is hurt? One of the first places we can teach forgiveness is in the home. Siblings are great practice for many areas of life, forgiveness definitely being one. Teaching siblings the choice of forgiveness can start very early when they inevitably hurt each other. We start by acknowledging the incident and the pain. Then have one sibling ask for forgiveness and the other give it. This may seem simple but we are instilling this concept early for when the bigger hurts come later on. It needs to be the same process if they are hurt by a peer. Talk through with your child by acknowledging their pain. It is easy to blow off when a teen brings up a social situation but we need to use every situation to practice forgiveness in the heart of our child. When dealing with a bully we don’t want our child to be a doormat but Christ would not have us teach retaliation either. Click here for our series on dealing with bullies. Spend time listening to your children and allowing them to emote, offering forgiveness seems easier if you have support.