A life-size forgiveness board game gives players practice in responding in a healthy fashion to various offenses. In a large open area, lay out a "game board" on the floor using large circles or sheets of paper. Mark the "Start" and "Finish" squares. Create a deck of cards that describe various situations in which a person has an opportunity to forgive or retaliate. Some should say "you choose to forgive and forget." Others describe how the person retaliated against her offender and instructs her to move back one to four spaces or go back to start. All players take turns drawing a card and reading the scenario. If it is a forgiveness card, he must describe what he would say or do to seek peace and forgiveness. If the other players agree that the response is forgiving, the player rolls a die and moves forward that many spaces. If the player draws a retaliation card, she must move back according to the instructions. The first person to reach the end, wins the forgiveness race.
Sometimes you know you should forgive someone, but you just can't quite get the words out. A forgiveness roleplaying session lets you rehearse how to approach the other person and gives you that extra confidence boost necessary to let go of your pride. This is best in a small group but you can do it with just a partner. Warm up with situations where the character needs to forgive someone and act out the conversation. Then share the real-life situation that you need to address and practice how the conversation might go. Try to anticipate the various responses the other person might give and plan your forgiveness options.
Sometimes it may not be directly about your need to forgive but in extending forgiveness to those most in need of it. Maybe you have been directly hurt by criminal activity or maybe you have religious motivation to reach out to those in prison. Join a prayer group to pray for prisoners; host a booth at a fair promoting prison outreach; or hold weekly prayer and religious study with inmates to extend the message of God's forgiveness through the tangible evidence of human hands reaching out to those society often considers "untouchable."
A forgiveness tree provides tangible encouragement of your progress in the forgiveness habit. Make a class bulletin board (or post one in your room) of a bare tree trunk and branches. Every time you choose to forgive rather than retaliate, create a leaf for your tree. Each leaf briefly summarizes the date, the situation, what you said or did to seek forgiveness and the lessons you learned from it. As your tree gains leaves, you have a visible record of how you are growing into a person who forgives and forgets.