So You Don't Do Halloween???

I love FALL....I love everything about the season. I love leaves and pumpkins and the weather turning brisk. I love hayrides and bonfires, corn mazes and hot cocoa. I even love playing dress up with my kids on occasion (not indicative of fall itself, more in general).

 Fall is a wonderful and beautiful time of year. But I don't do Halloween.

This is usually the part where people cock their eye brow and say...."What?? You don't do Halloween??"

Or the time when my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ roll their eyes and give me that "here we go with hyper spiritual opinions that suck the fun out of being a christian" grin as they quickly try to change the subject. :)

So rest assured the point of this blog is NOT to dissuade or condemn anyone who does choose to celebrate Halloween, for I've learned that is a useless plight. But rather, to share my reasoning and encourage the seemingly small handful of those who choose to NOT celebrate this holiday.

I want you to know, you're not alone, you're not nuts, and you're not "hyper spiritual". :)

It's not easy to choose to not take part in something that so many people around us are doing. Especially when it looks fun and innocent. I mean who doesn't want to dress their kids up in cute outfits and get bag loads of free candy, right??

It doesn't make sense to some, but I'm going to share my reasoning and the arguments I've encountered for not celebrating Halloween and hopefully it will encourage and affirm you in your convictions..if not, that's fine too. :) It may even give a pondering point to some who've been neither here nor there on the subject.

So, here goes....  

The first and most obvious,

 Halloween Glorifies Fear and Evil

Some people like being scared. I personally don't understand that because I do NOT enjoy being afraid. But some enjoy it. However, the Bible tells us that fear is not from God. 

2Tim 1:7- "For God does not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind."

Now, this scripture is directly referring to fear in sharing the word of God. But God is the same in all situations. If he doesn't give fear in one area, he doesn't give fear in another.

Fear brings anxiety, anxiety and fear are the opposites of peace. God is peace, fear and anxiety are not found in Him. If fear and anxiety is not from God than I conclude that fear and anxiety comes from the enemy. 

There is no arguing that evil comes from the enemy as well, but there is always question as to a christians involvement in being entertained by evil.

Psalm 34:14, 1Peter 3:11, Psalm 37:27 Are three different scriptures with the same theme

"Turn from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it."

If God put the same words in three different scriptures, They are worth closer attention.

This scripture implores us to turn away from evil, to do good, seek peace and pursue it.

It seems to me that being entertained by evil things, is not turning from evil and not seeking peace.

When we allow ourselves to "minimize" the effects and seriousness of Evil and Fear by allowing ourselves to be entertained by it, we are doing the opposite of seeking and pursuing peace. Rather, we are inviting fear and anxiety into our lives.

I've heard many say....." but WE don't do anything scary. We dress ourselves and our kids up as cute little animals or princesses. We don't engage in the "evil" stuff, we just like the candy, we aren't really celebrating halloween..."

Here's my take on that, and this is just my opinion. Halloween is known for fear and evil. I can't even walk through walmart without seeing scary and evil images. 

The weeks following up to halloween are marked by horror flick marathons and many people are dressing up their adorable innocent children as devils, witches, vampires, murderers...etc

Huge billboards with horrifically scary themes, line our highways promoting haunted houses{that, btw invite fear, :) } 

I may just be daft, but how can someone deny the evil connotations of this holiday??

Saying that halloween is innocent because you chose to dress up like a teddy bear is like saying that a piece of poo is dessert because you dipped it in chocolate.

It's kinda like saying you read playboy for the articles. :) C'mon now, aint nobody got time for that. 

Don't for one second think that the true enemy of our soul doesn't delight in people sugar coating the evil with cute little red devil outfits for the little ones.

Furthermore, if you aren't doing those innocent things as a form of celebration of halloween...why are you not doing them in, say....March?? 

Ok, take a breath and say... "I still love you Dayna." :)

ok, the second reason for me is...

I feel it teaches a contradiction to my kids

As Christians we are constantly trying to teach our kids about the "true meanings" of holidays behind the commercialism. Sure we engage in the Easter bunny and Santa..but if you're a believer, hopefully those celebrations are focused more on Christ's birth and resurrection than it is the images that are used to make a profit.

I can hear the conversations in Christian households everywhere. "Yes little johnny, the Easter bunny is fun to pretend, BUT the real reason we celebrate Easter is to remember Christ dying on the cross and raising from the dead. THAT is the most important thing about today."

Same is true for Christmas.

But when it comes to halloween, we switch sides. It's no longer about celebrating the origin of the holiday and the true meanings behind it. No, now we want to say..."well, little johnny, I know that halloween is used as a evil holiday and has origins in deep paganism..BUT, we just want to celebrate the fun commercialized version of this day."

I feel that is a contradiction to what we've been teaching them about holidays from the start. 

Are you still with me?? 

I hope so.. 

Thirdly..

I just can't shake the gut feeling I have about this holiday

 So, here's the thing. The first two reasons alone, without going into the countless testimonies I've heard and read of people coming out of satanism and what they have seen happen on halloween are reason enough for me to not be comfortable with celebrating halloween.

I'm not even for a minute saying that if you are a christian who celebrates halloween that you're sinning. So please don't think that.

You're salvation is through Christ, not whether you celebrate a holiday or don't.

I feel VERY strongly about this issue, so forgive me if I can't wrap my head your reasoning on the matter.

But know I'm not judging you for your decision. I'm really not.

I simply have to be true to my deep conviction over this area based on my experiences and knowledge.

James 4:17 says, "If anyone knows what they ought to do and does not do it, they are sinning."

So for me, I can't go against my convictions.

But I'll be honest, It's been harder since having children. It's hard to look at your little girl who wants to dress up like Cinderella  and get candy like her friends do and try to explain to her why we are not celebrating halloween as a family. 

I have been torn about it...not because my convictions are less about the holiday, but because she doesn't understand. 

It's tough making those choices as a parent.

Part of me wants to let her enjoy the innocent aspects, but a bigger part of me wants to teach her that not everything that looks desirable and fun or innocent is beneficial. (1 corin 10:23)

After all, is it really all THAT bad to let her dress up and get candy..

No, or course not. But I truly feel like the enemy just loves how we reason away our involvement in all types of things his hands are all over. 

There will come a time when our kids will have to make a choice between following Christ and going down a road that looks more exciting and that many of their friends are taking. 

If I cant teach her to make the choice over candy and costumes, I worry that she wont make the choice when her life is possibly on the line.

You never want to see your kids miss out on something they want to do, especially in these innocent years where to them...everything really is just, innocent.

But for me, this issue goes deeper.

Now, here's the deal. If you see us at the church fall party don't hastily come up to me and say..."I thought you didn't celebrate halloween". :) Which I know none of you would...right?? :)

Let me be real honest. I haven't completely figured out how we are going to handle church and school fall party activities. 

We have just entered into the school years and here we are two and half weeks til Oct 31st and I'm not sure what we plan to do. I'm still prayerfully looking for guidance on this issue.

My goal is not to force my kids to withdraw from all these things, but to teach her why we don't like halloween. That it represents all the things that God is not..{evil, scary, mean, death} and we don't want to glorify any of those things by acknowledging the holiday.

As she grows she will form convictions of her own.

I'd be lying if I said, we've worked it all out that far.

But, I want to encourage you if you are a family that doesn't really feel good about celebrating halloween. I know you feel sort of like an outcast through the month of October. Maybe you've been put down for being "too spiritual" or "looking for a demon behind every bush".

I know it's hard. But walk with God through your convictions. Following them only brings you closer in relationship to Christ. 

You're not alone, there are other families who feel like you, who hurt like you over telling their kids they can't go trick or treating or to halloween parties.

If you feel strongly, stick to your gut. Be true to what you feel God is leading you to do for your family.

and take heart...

NOVEMBER is ALMOST here. :)

 Your obedience will reap a beautiful harvest.