As students arrive, start a discussion with students by using the following questions:
- What kinds of things do kids your age do or say that hurt other people? (Answers will vary.)
- What is your first response when someone hurts you? (Answers will vary.)
Give students a few moments to share before moving on to the story below.
The Rwandan Genocide happened in the African country of Rwanda in 1994. The Rwandans of the Hutu ethnicity committed the genocide against the people of Tutsi ethnicity.
Share the following 6-minute audio clip with your students:
After the Genocide, Author Witnessed How Rwandans Defined Forgiveness
The Rwandan genocide was deeply tragic. Innocent people were killed and persecuted. The whole trajectory of a country and its people changed as a result.
- Why do you think so many people in Rwanda are choosing to walk in forgiveness for horrific events that impacted them deeply? (Answers will vary. Accept all reasonable responses.)
- If you were in the same situation, do you think you would be able to forgive? Why or why not? (Answers will vary. Allow students to share their hones feelings without judgment.)
Forgiving people who hurt or abuse us isn’t easy—whether they meant to hurt us or not. In the case of the Rwandan genocide, people were hurting other people intentionally. Sometimes people hurt others without meaning to, and other times the hurtful actions or words are intentional.
- What is the difference in how you respond to someone who did not hurt you on purpose versus how you respond to someone who meant to hurt you? (Answers will vary; forgiveness is more likely when the hurt is determined unintentional.)
Naturally we want others to forgive us when we hurt them, but it can be a challenge to be the one who has to do the forgiving, especially if the person who did something wrong to us did it on purpose. Joseph’s brothers meant to harm him. Let’s see how Joseph responded.
