Beware: A Hot Topic

I know that this is a "hot" topic and it can be fairly controversial among Christians, and even Jeff and I have differing opinions on different areas of this topic....Halloween. I just figured I'd share what we are doing and why we do it.

My history... When I was in 1st or 2nd grade my parents decided that our family was no longer going to celebrate Halloween. I don't remember being upset by it at all, I was actually quite thrilled because we got to be pulled out of school on the days they did all their Halloween celebration. I also remember feeling quite "big" by telling my music teacher that "I don't have to sing this song, because I don't celebrate Halloween." (Now that I think back on it, I see some pride issues there.) The reasons that I can remember being given on why my parents decided not to celebrate anymore was 1) Safety, if they had to check every piece of candy to make sure someone hadn't tampered with it then they didn't know if we needed to be doing it. 2) My dad was a police officer and I know he said they saw a rise in missing pets, because of "sacrifices" on that night. I'm sure there was more to it, that is just what I remember.

The struggle... As an adult I have to figure out what I believe for myself and why. I can no longer do things as a parent just because that is how my parents did it. I also have a husband who has a different background and different opinions that we have to merge together.

The main issue we do agree on, and that is we do not celebrate Halloween. The main reason we have decided this is because of the evil that is rooted in Halloween. I know, I know, it started out as All Hallows Eve to remember the saints that died. Honestly, is that what we really 'celebrate' today? If we would take all the "roots" of the actual day away and just look at what Halloween stands for today, what do we see? I see and my kids see, as we walk through any store, watch any TV, or just look around us, is spiders, skeletons, skulls, blood, gory masks and mannequin's, ghosts, witches, haunted houses, death. All of that is to make things scary, or to instill fear in people. Not only that, I don't see any of that glorifying the Living God that I serve. The closest thing would be the spiders because they are His creation, but once again probably 90% of the population is fearful of spiders, therefore once again there is the instilling of fear.

I once again want to remind you that this is where I am, I am not saying this is where you should be or how you should believe. That being said, my goal as a child of God, is to glorify Him in all I do. I want to be holy as He is holy, and to me Scripture clearly says to stay away from witchcraft, sorcery, etc and so much of that is tied in with Halloween. Scripture also says in Phil. 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." To me, Halloween is not described in that at all and neither is fear which leads us into the main theme of Halloween.

The fear factor. If you know me and if you've read my blog from the beginning, you can see that I have always struggled with fear and I have one son in particular who struggles with fear. This son can't even look at the posters in a dr.'s office of the muscular system and the skeletal system because he doesn't like the looks of it and he doesn't want bad dreams. He doesn't even like walking by the Halloween aisle because he doesn't like what he sees, he actually covers his eyes and turns his head. It scares him. So now I feel my job as a parent is to protect my children. I don't want my children to be scared, I don't want them to have nightmares, I don't want them to live with fear their whole lives and I KNOW that their Father in heaven doesn't want that for them either. Because of that, at this stage in our life, I have decided not even to participate in alternative church celebrations. The only really good reason I can see being involved in anything that has to do with Halloween is to reach out to the lost. The trouble I have with that and my family, at this time in life, is that I can't subject my children to what others may do and dress up as.

Something else to think about...Even though my other children don't have the "fear" and they almost seem drawn to look at all the gory stuff, what they are taking in now will forever be embedded in their minds. One day, these images and feelings of being scared can resurrect themselves in dreams, or in their thinking when they might be outside in the dark, or when they're home by themselves. I don't want that for my children, I would much rather have them resting assured in their faith in God and in His protection that He has around them. I would much rather them be focused on all the good in this life and what God has done for them. I want their ultimate goal to be, to glorify God in ALL they do, and to be holy as He is holy.

So on October 31st, we will once again have a family night! We are going to have a special dinner, the kids are going to share some things they've learned and some talents, we are going to watch a family friendly movie. We are going to have FUN! We're going to have CANDY! We're going to make MEMORIES!