I want my parenting to reflect the gospel. Therefore, I want forgiveness in my house to mean forgiveness. Once our kids have received a consequence for their actions and asked for forgiveness, the incident isn’t brought up again. We try not to remind them of their previous offenses unless it is becoming a pattern. We might say something like, “You haven’t been telling the truth lately, so I’m having a hard time believing you.” We would try not to dredge up past infractions to try and condemn again. They also can’t be punished for the same crime twice. If they did something wrong and received a punishment and asked for forgiveness…done – no more consequences for that behavior…unless the behavior is repeated.
