This video from Le Petit Journal features an interview with a young French boy, as he struggles to understand the horrific events that recently transpired in Paris. The father’s calm, comforting words to his son are a beautiful testament to his parenting. When it comes to your children, the best way to fight back against fear and hurt is love. This scared little boy doesn’t need to hear about “boots on the ground” or whether or not someone should be granted refuge–he just needed to be reminded that even though there’s evil in the world, goodness and beauty will persist and endure.

I remember all to well the events of September 11, 2001, waiting anxiously for my eldest two children to come home from school so that I could help them process what had happened that morning in New York City at the World Trade Center.  School officials had done their best to keep the children shielded from the news, but in the age of technology and cell phones, rumors starting trickling through during their bus ride home.  My 7-year-old and 5-year-old came running in, wide-eyed, telling me they’d heard on the bus that a plane had hit the junior high school. Evenutally, they learned all about what had happened, and for many months afterwards, any plane passing overhead was met with a fearful upwards glance.  

My heart goes out to the children of Paris, and to their parents, who will be dealing with the trauma from this terrrorist attack for years to come.