Fish Slappers!!!

We've been busy studying a little history around here...
The topic we've spent some time on that I keep wishing to go back to is the study of The Assyrians and The Babylonians...

Those Assyrians just were not the nicest of people...
I shared a video (parts of it anyway) with my kids that related the cruelty of the acts these people participated in. 
So harsh,
 so sad...
but history and so,
I felt parts of it were worth sharing...

BUT I am happy to say that I am following it all up with a nice, sweet ending...

Jonah:  A Veggies Tale Movie...

This sweet simple story portrays the people of Nineveh (the Assyrians) as a group of nasty "Fish Slappers!!!"

"Fish Slapping"  just sounds so much happier than the terrorizing acts that the entire Middle East went through at the hands of the Assyrians.

History can be ugly...
I still love teaching it,
and believe it is one of the most vital of all things for our children to know and understand...however, I also love to keep the innocence of my children alive as long as possible; thus the reason for following up with a little bit of sweetness.

Maybe I'm foolish but I'd rather leave fish slapping in their minds than the awful terror that was actually experienced. 

I love that Jonah delivered his message that he'd been sent to share and that the people from Nineveh put down their mackerels and their halibuts and went about doing good...

(unfortunately, as we continue on through the history of these people, we find that it was fairly short-lived, in a matter of just 40 years they were back to their tyrannical ways)  But again, that is history and that seems to be the cycle for most civilizations...

I also love that Jonah had some serious lessons to learn himself...compassion and mercy were big for him to "get"...

AND
I appreciate the lessons that are taught in this little movie...

Adorable
and so numerous ~

Obedience
Compassion
Mercy
Repentance
Trust
Slow to Anger
Unconditional Love
Understanding
Power of Prayer
Second Chances
a lesson in stopping all the fish slapping and starting to be nice to all the people...
and then finally watching as Jonah learns a few lessons of his own...

Can't wait for the conversation will start the moment this movie ends....
And the music that will surely be happening throughout my house, I can hear it now...
"Jonah was a prophet...oo,oo, but he really never got it...oo, oo...Jonah was a prophet, oo, oo, ....compassion and mercy from me to you and you to me...that's what God wants to see...Jonah was a prophet....oo, ooo!"