Scared? You are not alone!

My two-year daughter had a friend over for the day. Her friend was a month younger, eight pounds lighter, and never had been around large dopey dogs before. Truthfully she was scared. I told monkey girl that "Judy is scared of Miles". Monkey girl thought a moment, ran over to the video shelf. Grabbed a video and said "Veggie tales, scared. Please watch." So that's why the girls watched "Where is God when I'm scared?" twice.

This was the first Veggie Tales video. The first segment Frankencelery was seen on a Carman video (that also featured the Hanson brothers before they got big acting out David and Goliath). Larry's voice in the Frankencelery is a bit odd, but otherwise this is a great introduction to Veggie Tales for anyone.

In Frankencelery, Junior Asparagus has been watching old monster movies and scares himself. Larry the cucumber and Bob the tomato appear in his room and offer to sing him a song to help him not be scared. But since Junior is five years old, he's not scared. Or so he says. Bob and Larry sing a song to teach him that "God is bigger than the boogie man."

Now there are two camps on this. One camp of parents I've talked to have no discussions of the boogieman, Godzilla, or other monsters in their homes and feel that it's horrible to watch this and introduce these concepts. Others appreciate the fact that Bob and Larry never say that these don't exist - because in the mind of a four, five and six year olds a whole other world exists - and the important things is that God is bigger than any scary thing that they may encounter. Your personal views will have to help you decide which camp you are in and whether or not it is appropriate for you to purchase this video.

I love the segment where they discuss that God is bigger than the slime monster. And even if the slime monster can squirt slime out of his ears; God just went "Phhhht" and created the universe. Junior quickly learns that "God is bigger than anything and he's on my team"

They do introduce the idea of reality and fantasy in one way though. Frankencelery is revealed to be just Phil, an actor from Toledo. There are also hints that we need to be careful of what we watch on TV.

There is also the first Silly Song with Larry. Archibald Asparagus objects to Larry singing that "Everybody has a water buffalo." This is what a silly song is supposed to be - catchy (as in it may get into your head and you'll hear it ALL day) and silly (Everybody's got a Water buffalo. Yours is fast and mine is slow. Where do we get them? I don't know but everybody's got a Water buffalooooooooooooooo

The second half of the video is Daniel in the Lion's Den done as an opera with many different styles of songs. It starts with King Darius having a dream. Since the wisemen don't know what the dream means, it's up to Daniel to tell the King what God says the dream means. By doing so, Daniel becomes second in command. The video did come with an insert (long lost) saying they did omit some events that happened between this event and the lions' den due to time constraints. I thought it was sad that they felt they needed to include such an insert, but it did say they had received complaints. All Veggie Tales that I have seen are very faithful to scripture, but sometimes things can't be completely covered in a ten minute version.

The wisemen plot Daniel's demise including We could use him as a footstool, or a table to play scrabble on, and tie him up and throw him out of the Babylon. Instead they just convince King Darius to enact a law that says those who pray to anyone but the king will be thrown into the lion's den.

Daniel (played by Larry) goes ahead and prays to God and ends up going up the hill (where he can see his house) and being thrown into the lions' den. The bad jokes that happen as he is thrown in may be the worst punishment Daniel gets. A song is sung to him in the den reminding him that "You are not alone. There is someone watching you.

The next morning when the King and wisemen go to check on Daniel, they find Daniel thanking the lions for the pizza and calling them friends. (Hmmm, the insert didn't mention anything about that though nor the fact that the wisemen lived to go get jobs in Egypt and not thrown into the den like it happened in the scripture.

As with most children's videos out today, the end of the video ends with a review of what we learned today. Veggie Tales always also ends with a verse. In this case Isaiah 41:10 : "Do not fear for I am with you." The name Jesus (nor in any Veggie Tales to date except for the Christmas video) is never used in the video and the scripture used is Old Testament if this would be of importance to you either negative or positive in your purchasing decision.

For us today, I'm not sure if the lesson that God is always with you and not to be scared is what calmed her down. I think it was more the fact that it is her favorite video to watch at home (according to her mom when she picked her up). I was just impressed with the fact that Judy speaks English as a second language. Korean is her first language - and she was singing along with all the songs on the video. Not bad for a little girl - so I guess it really did make her not scared. Although, nothing can make the dog less dopey.