Forgiveness beats shame

Jesus, teach me about forgiveness, so I don't have to feel ashamed! Amen.

"A man had two sons," Jesus said. "One said, `Give me half your money,' then ran away and spent it all! He was so poor he had to clean pigpens. Finally, he went back and said, ashamed, `I don't deserve to be called your son.' But his father hugged him and had a party! The other son was angry that his brother got attention after being bad, but his father said, `All I have is yours, but we had to celebrate. Your brother was lost, and now he's found!'"

Shame is scary. When you know you've done something wrong, it feels awful. You want to fix it -- to take back what you said or did -- but it's too late. You can apologize, but that doesn't erase it.

Forgiveness helps us get past shame. In this week's Gospel (Luke 15:1-3,11-32), a boy does something so awful, he thinks he'll feel terrible for the rest of his life -- and then he's forgiven.

Getting rid of shame can be tough. When you do something wrong, you probably think about hiding it or denying it. When you admit what you did, the shame is like being uncomfortable in your own skin!

In the Gospel story, a boy takes his father's money and wastes it. When he realizes his mistake, he's so ashamed, he begs his father for a job and says to treat him like a worker instead of a son.

Forgiveness gets rid of shame, but it takes more than one person. If you make a mistake and then apologize, you probably don't feel better until the other person forgives you and says, "Forget it."

The boy in the Gospel is really us, and the father in the story is God. When we ask God and other people for forgiveness, we can stop feeling ashamed and get past our mistakes. Jesus even described being forgiven as feeling like a party's been thrown, just for you!