I watched the video first… making notes of all the points I wanted to cover for my kids. Then, I prefaced the viewing with all the things I wanted them to observe. (I felt that just letting them watch it would be an attack on their senses. I wanted to make this a positive lesson, not an action movie for entertainment.) After I told them what they were about to see – Adults making bad choices and creating BAD energy – I shared the video with them, stopping it at various parts and pointing out the points I wanted them to “see”.

“Watch the actions of the Big Dog on the right hand side as the wave of energy builds in the front.” We concluded that the “good guys” recognized that the energy was shifting and they made their way to the back, away from it.

I also pointed out that when energy is building like that, people stop caring about safety. I pointed out how everyone, even the small children, had to look out for themselves. “That is not a loving environment,” I said, “and when we see this stuff building up… we find a way out until the energy changes.”

At one point in the escalation I paused the video to ask, “Now where is God in this?”

And my son said, “He’s in the back, in a Dog Suit rescuing the kids from all that craziness!”

Then, Cayden said quickly, “Mommy, they pushed God right out of the room!”

I said, “That is absolutely right! They pushed God right out of the room with their drama. So where do we want to be?”

They both answered, “Wherever God is!”

I reinforced that idea. I told them, “If we were in that room while all the energy was building in the front, I would start making my way to the back with the Big Dog!” They agreed.

Then I asked them what THEY saw. I was careful to listen to what they were taking inside their hearts and minds. One thing I didn’t notice was a child who ran forward, from the safety of the back to observe more of the fight. My son caught that and asked, “Why would you run back into it if you were safe away from it?” I told him that some people are attracted to this kind of energy. Some people create it, and seek it out. “But we aren’t those people.”

I asked one last time if they had any more questions on what they saw. And my son, knowing the cause of the fight said, “I know what I would do after I got out of the room. I would pump up the slashed tires and then run back in and yell, ‘Ok everybody! You can stop fighting! The tires are fixed!’ and then maybe they would be happy again. Then, maybe they would cut and eat that big cake together.”

Wow – I didn’t even see the cake!