Thank you for reading Prodigal Pig Tale. If you haven’t read it, you’ll find it by clicking HERE. It’s a story about forgiveness for “kids of all ages.”

Even if you’re very young, you know that you’ve done things that need to be forgiven. And you know that you need to forgive other people for bad things they have done to you. You probably also understand that you’ll never really be happy unless you forgive and are forgiven.

Here’s what I want to tell you about that:

1. Forgiveness begins with God.

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The God who made us wants to give us something very special. He wants to give us a wonderful gift. He wants to give us eternal life, life that goes on forever and forever in Heaven, with Him.

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But we have a problem. God’s book, the Bible, tells us that we have all done bad things. These bad things are called “sin.” They’re things that make God sad. He can’t let us into Heaven because our sins would ruin Heaven.

The Bible tells us that our sins have separated us from God, so He must turn away from us. We can never see God because of our sins. The penalty for sin is separation from God forever.

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But God loves us very much. The Bible says that “. . . God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son, that whoever believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.”

God’s Son Jesus died on a cross to pay for our sins. He took our punishment for us.

But the really wonderful thing is that He came back to life and went back to Heaven where He is waiting for us.

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Now God is free to offer us a wonderful gift. “The gift of God is eternal life,” says the Bible. He offers to forgive us and to take away our sins so that we may enter Heaven and live with Him forever and forever. He wants to give us the wonderful gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

When somebody gives you a gift, what do you do? You reach out and take it. You accept it. What do you say? You say “thank you.”

Have you ever received God’s gift of forgiveness and eternal life? You can trust Him right now to give it to you.

 

2. Now that you have been forgiven, it’s easier to forgive people who have done bad things to you.