Mosiah 26:29-39 Repentance and Forgiveness

Learn the R's of repentance:

• Recognize to yourself and to God that you have sinned - confess
  
• (feel) Remorse - Godly sorrow
  
• Request forgiveness - from God and from those you have wronged, including yourself
  
• (make) Restitution as far as possible
  
• Refrain from repeating the sin
• Repeat the repentance process if you sin again
• Receive forgiveness
  

Give everyone a small piece of paper and have them write down something that they did wrong that day. Give them a few minutes to think about it. Some days they may not be able to think of anything - more likely just because they can't remember than they really have done nothing wrong that day. If that's the case, they can think of something in the past week or the past month. You may want to share some things you have done wrong to give them some ideas. Kids are usually pretty good at pointing out what their brothers and sisters have done wrong, so if someone still can't think of anything, you could ask everyone to help them think of something. You can also help them think of something by asking questions. "Have your brothers/sisters cried today because of something you did?" etc. If you have everyone share what they wrote to encourage discussion, it would not be wise to force anyone to share. The important part of this exercise is repentance, not mistakes.

After everyone has something written, explain that repentance means feeling sorry for what you've done. You will want to fix what you have done wrong and do the right thing instead of doing that wrong thing again. Ask each person to write down these steps if necessary, then go through the steps to complete the repentance process.

How many times will the Savior forgive our trespasses?