Forgiveness: Ways to Practice Forgiving Others

by Mom It Forward on April 18th, 2011 | No Comments »

This week's Season of Service challenge is to forgive. Forgive is a verb meaning 1) to stop being angry, 2) to pardon an offense, or 3) to cancel a debt or obligation to someone.

10 Tips on Forgiveness

Cancel your children's obligation to clean their room for one day if they will spend at least one hour going to FreeChild.org, DoSomething.org, TakingItGlobal.org, or, if you're in Canada We Generation, to get ideas for service projects and doing one of them.
Stop being angry about the lack of sufficient music education in your child's school. Gather some statistics on the effectiveness of music education and draft a letter to send to your child's principal, your district's curriculum coordinator, and your legislator.
Make a poster for peace if you're tired of being angry about a particular war. Go to AnotherPosterForPeace.org for ideas.
Share the story of Representative John Lewis, a black Congressman, as an example of forgiveness. Find that story and other examples of good character at Heroes of America.org.
Restore a friendship that has deteriorated or ended due to a disagreement. See this article for help.
Stop being angry about the fact that slavery still exists in some parts of the world and go to AntiSlavery.org or FreeTheSlaves.net to get ideas on how to help do something about it.
Let someone in ahead of you on the road, someone that you might not ordinarily let in, as a means of showing forgiveness for the other poor soul who cut you off.
Cancel a small debt that a friend may owe you.
Read a book by a person of another race, ethnicity, or religion, to educate yourself and prevent any possible future need for forgiveness by another person of your misdeeds.
Go to Passport.Panda.org and learn more about protecting endangered species, global warming, and forest conservation, to prevent the need for forgiveness of any of your misdeeds against wildlife or the environment.

How Will You Give to Others This Week?

What other ideas do you have for forgiving others?
How has forgiving made a meaningful difference for you this week?
How have others forgiven you this week and what difference has that made in your life?

How Else Can You Make a Difference This Season?

Make a meaningful difference this season by taking the Season of Service (SOS) Challenge. Here's how you can participate:

Commit to do one act of kindness/service based on the week's challenge.
Leave a comment with ideas relating to the week's challenge as well as your experience(s) performing it.
Enter to win each week's giveaway. Check out this week's prizes from Rodale by clicking here.
Join #gno this Tuesday on Twitter to connect with other Mom It Forward moms about the challenge.