Forgiveness games activities

The story, which is actually derived from a psychology-based video game called Shattered Memories , is as follows:. Prince Wilhelm is passionately in love with Celestine. But she does not love him. Celestine begs the king not to marry her to Wilhelm, but the king ignores her pleas. Royal protocol means he must say yes to the match. They are married and Wilhelm takes Celestine back with him to his kingdom.

That night, he attempts to consummate the marriage, but the distraught Celestine flees. She runs from the safety of the castle and across a field, ignoring the sign which warns of danger. In that field is a bull, who, seeing the girl, charges her.

She falls under his hooves and is killed instantly. In the game, the player is required to line up four figurines representing the characters, ordering them from most culpable to most innocent.

Many may pick either Wilhelm or Harold as the guiltiest party. Some believe that Wilhelm would not have forced the marriage if he truly loved Celestine. Others believe that Harold should have broken protocol, placing his duty to his daughter about his duty to the throne.

Many may also say that the bull is the guiltiest, since there is no denying that he killed the princess. Most players tend to pick Celestine as the most innocent. Alas, the story is more complicated than it may appear. Not because of the information we are given, but because of the information that is omitted.

For instance, we do not know whether or not Celestine is being chased. She may have had time to read the warning sign rather than haphazardly running into danger. For this reason, some may pick her as the guiltiest party. Many others will put her only as the second-most innocent, with the most innocent being the bull who was, after all, just being a bull.

But what of Harold and Wilhelm? Well, we do not know what the consequences of breaking protocol might have been. Yes, Harold should have held more loyalty to his daughter. But if breaking protocol might have resulted in a war that could cost the lives of countless individuals, then he was stuck making a choice between the lesser of two evils. As for Wilhelm, we are never told whether or not he is actually aware that Celestine does not love him.

In the story we are given, she only voices her objections to her father. And while Wilhelm attempts to consummate the marriage, we are not told that he does so forcefully. From his perspective, he might have been simply following through on standard wedding night tradition when his new bride suddenly ran off, leaving him confused. This leads us to the great lesson that this story may teach us about forgiveness.

Forgiveness is aided by our ability to see through the eyes of others. We may be resentful toward people because we believe they have caused us harm. But that does not mean they were aware of the harm they were causing, or that they did not feel they had adequate justification for their actions.

Sometimes we place it upon ourselves , and sometimes we place it upon others. The same goes for living a life with a grudge holding them down. Choose a rock for each teen; the rocks should be cumbersome and heavy so the teens actually have to struggle to hold them. Line the kids up at the start line of the race and make them run while holding the stones. They will understand how much the rock inhibits their performance and by proxy, how much a grudge inhibits them.

The same goes for teens, so the lemon squeeze provides children with a game that requires physical involvement as well as providing a visual aide to show how many grudges each child holds. Ask the children to make a list of people they have yet to forgive before you tell them anything else about the game.

Place a lemon in front of the children for each name on the list. Set up a manual juicer for each child on a table 10 yards away from their resting point.

The teens have to sprint between the juicer and the pile of lemons, carrying one to the juicer at a time. Encourage children draw large flowers and then write F-O-R-G-I-V-E in each of the petals, so each flower should have 7 petals so one letter will fit on each petal! Give children some chenille wire for the stems, if desired. They will hunt around the room or designated area for leaves of the big flower and each petal that they find will have a word or words from today's Bible verse on it.

Then children will tape or glue the petals onto the large flower onto the poster board and try to read or memorize today's verse! Each child could be given an artificial flower if they can say the Bible verse or can say some words from the verse about forgiving each other 70 x 7!

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