Splink | God Forgives the Repentant

Turn It Around!

Declare one day (or evening) to be Turn Around Day. Wear clothing turned inside out or backward. Switch around some furniture or household décor. Eat dessert before the meal or have breakfast foods for dinner.  Use the back door more than the front door (unless that’s the norm) and incorporate any other ideas you have of “turning something around.”

The reason we have been having fun with Turn Around Day is to help us learn more about repentance. Repentance means turning away from sin. It involves a complete change in direction to follow God’s way instead of staying on the path of sin.  When we acknowledge our sin and ask God to forgive us, it means we have repented. We are telling God we want to turn away from that sin to follow Him.

This might be a great time to talk with family members about their own need for repentance or share about a time you repented of your sins and accepted God’s forgiveness.

Laundry Relay

Divide the family into two teams or allow pairs to compete against each other. Provide two piles or baskets of similar amounts and types of clean clothing. Instruct family members to do a relay race to see which team can get their piles folded or taken to their owners’ rooms first. You might even do one where socks need to be matched.

Why do we wash our clothes? Can’t we keep wearing dirty clothes every day?  Discuss the reasons this is not a good choice.

A washing machine, water, and detergent are needed to get clothes clean. It’s a good reminder for us that our dirty hearts (dirty because of sin) need to be made clean too. We need to repent and receive forgiveness.

God forgives the repentant. We can’t wash our dirty hearts in a washing machine or bathtub. Only God can do that when we repent.

Make It Count!

Set a timer for one minute (or longer if you want to) and encourage family members to gather items that begin with the letter R and bring them back to your gathering spot by the time the timer goes off.  If you want to keep everyone together you can see how many items can be named (from within your home) that start with the letter R.

Count the items each person found and declare a winner or celebrate as a group about the number of items you listed.

We found a lot of things that start with the letter R, but we did not find a very important word that starts with R. Do you remember the meaning of repent? When you repent, you turn away from sin and toward God’s Way. The amazing thing about repentance is that God always forgives the repentant. We never have to fear we have caught Him when He was too busy or in a bad mood. Let’s pray together now and thank God for His amazing forgiveness of our sin.