Have you ever stopped to notice all the things your kiddos pick up that you didn't teach? I know they say more is caught than taught, but I didn't fully understand. The other day God brought a bunch of these to my attention. The way my kiddo says this, the way they respond to that, the way they enter a room, the way they apologize, so many more than I thought.
Demonstrating forgiveness with your kids, apologizing when you have hurt them or demonstrating your process when they see someone else hurt you, teaches so much. It is one of those caught - rather than taught issues. They learn the circumstances where forgiveness is necessary, they learn the words to say, and they learn there is a process of letting go of our hurts. We taught our oldest the words to say and walked him through those often. He can and will easily parrot the words when needed. We haven't, however, been good at demonstrating this for him. We haven't given him a chance to catch this. We have only tried to teach it.
This week let's be intentional about having our kids catch this from us! The verse our kiddos are learning with this trait on Sunday morning is Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."
Let's not just know this verse, let's live it out for our kids! I want to be a family who does this. I want to daily practice walking humbly with my God. So, own something you did poorly today and apologize. If it's in front of your kids, great. If it's not, bring it up at dinner tonight and see what conversations grow out of it.