This month in Center Stage we’re talking about forgiveness— deciding that someone who has wronged you doesn’t have to pay. “Doesn’t have to pay” sounds pretty vengeful, doesn’t it? And, of course, Christians aren’t supposed to be vengeful. But don’t we think in those terms when people do us wrong? We want them to PAY for what they did, to MAKE IT UP to us, to GET WHAT THEY DESERVE, because they OWE us. We think if we cancel their debt by forgiving them, we’re letting them off the hook, condoning what they did, and becoming wimps in the process. When Peter came to Jesus and asked if he should forgive someone up to seven times, he thought he was being generous. So when Jesus said nope, more like 77 times, it had to have set Peter back on his heels.  But that’s exactly what God has done for us: offered us unlimited forgiveness through His Son. And He did it “while we were yet sinners,” without exacting a rightful payback from us.  So today, as you talk with your kids about the parable Jesus told in Matthew 18: 21-35, help them grasp these important things about forgiveness: that God wants us to forgive since He forgives us; that if we’re unwilling to forgive, it can prevent us from accepting God’s forgiveness of our own wrongdoing; and that forgiving others means we want their well-being. Forgiving is one of the best ways to act like God and to show others what He is like.  (We are using buckets to symbolize carrying around the weight of unforgiveness can become very heavy at times)