My Thoughts on Halloween

We used to do halloween. The first couple years of Katelyn's life we dressed her up and went to a few houses for candy. Things have changed and we no longer "do" halloween. Here's why:

We are Christians.

All the candy is bad for our health.

All the candy has wasteful wrappers on it, remember one of my favorite blogs? Zero Waste Home


I don't like the scary costumes and my kids get scared when they answer the door to hand out candy.

Ok, so now I'm going to expand on the first one because in my mind it's the one that matters the most. Please realize that this is my conviction and I'm not judging other people, nor am I saying you should all change because of what I say here! As a Christian my family and I are are set apart, different from the world (1 Pete 2:11&12). Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against evil spiritual forces (Eph 6:12). Do you know where Halloween comes from?

It's interesting to look into, and a few different things come up. It's origins are pagan, and yes so are the origins of Christmas. But Christmas celebrates Christs birth, and Halloween celebrates death and evil. Yes originally it had a lot to do with the harvest, but it was also believed that the souls of the dead would visit on this night. It falls right before All Saints Day which is no coincidence. Catholics believed that when people died they basically waited around and got a chance to go to heaven on All Saints Day. So the night before was their last chance to get revenge, and haunt. I've also heard that since Reformation the persecuted Christians dressed up and bribed their attackers.

Satan takes what God has created and twists it, he makes counterfeits. He's a fake and a lie. I'll use the example of lust. Satan took sex, a beautiful gift from God, and he perverted it, turned it into all kinds of pitfalls for man. I believe that as Christians we need to be extra vigilant so we don't fall into his schemes. Pretending we can just take the "innocent" parts of Halloween and leaving the rest is a cop out.

I choose not to compromise and just take the fun bits of Halloween. My kids dress up all year, and we get treats often enough. I do struggle because we are called to love our neighbours, and handing out candy is very loving. To that I say that we must be loving all year round. Look out for our neighbours, know them, know their needs. Pray for them! Get involved with them, get to know them.

I also don't want to be holed away in a dark basement watching T.V. feeling the need to hide. My dream would be to have a powerful worship service on that night. Again, our battle is not between flesh and blood. Can you picture the spiritual battle on Halloween night around a place of worship? I would much prefer to kill demons and ruin satans plans than just be complacent and eat candy with a couple cute kids. The world lies to us, Satan lies to us. (1 Jn 5:19) He wants us to not care, or to not think about it too much. I'm getting worked up, YES!

1 Peter 2:11 (in case you didn't look it up when I put it up there at the top)

"Beloved, I urge you as aliens and stranger to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul."

And in the Message translation 11&12: Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives.

Sad Things Today

Depressing title I know. Here's my list of sad things:

- We are organizing the garage because it's supposed to snow, and it's just the beginning of a long cold winter:-( (Thankful I can park in the garage though!)

- While organizing the garage the infant car seat was pushed to the back of the shelf, won't be needing that.

- I've been reading the Little House on the Prairie Books, which makes me feel lazy and in-adequate. Laura was 15 and she wouldn't have to spell check "in-adequate", she was amazing! Not to mention "Ma" and all she did in a day. I know it's totally silly of me to compare, but still. It's just how I'm feeling.

- Micah is offically just huge and not a baby anymore. This fact didn't bother me before when I was waiting for another baby. Now it's painfully obvious that this house is without a baby for the first time in more than 6 years.

Ok, I'm done being sad. My house smells amazing from supper cooking, and my family is snug and happy under this roof. I can trust my Heavenly Father and rest in His mighty love.

This post is weird and I don't really like it, I'll still post it though. Thanks for listening.

Prayer Vigil

This past weekend I was in Calgary with the fam. I went down for a couple reasons, doctors appts, birthdays, hanging out with family etc. But because we were going I was super excited to join in the prayer vigil at the abortion clinic there. It was the number one thing on my list. More than Ikea, more than the cute consignment store, more than Phil and Sebastian coffee. I wanted to see what it looked like so that when I pray here at home it's more real. I wanted to support the efforts of 40 Days for Life. Most of all I wanted to pray for those Mammas going through such a hard time. I hoped that by being there I could be a light and shed love onto that place a bit.

But I didn't go. I didn't go?! Seriously, I didn't even go. And there is no excuse. I guess I could say I was busy, which it true. I could say I was tired. Which is also true. I could put the blame on Satan because of course he didn't want me bringing the power of God to that hurting place. I really don't know why I didn't go, but it makes me feel sad, and a little sick. It's also a wake up call.

It's hard to get our butts out the door. I have SO much respect for the people that are filling the hours on the sidewalk there. I feel horrible that the sidewalk was empty when I should have been there. Beyond words. Sad.

Christians, we need to wake up! It's time to join together, to BE THERE! Time to stomp Satans crusty dirty head and ruin his plans! Our prayers matter. Our presence matters. Our time is worthwhile. What are you using yours for? I sure was convicted over what I'm using mine for, and it sucks when I have to answer God with a grovelling and meek "I'm sorry." I'd much rather have said, "Nice work God, thanks for being there with me, it was powerful!" I'm sure thankful that I'm forgiven and saved by grace (and don't actually have to grovel), but next time I'd way rather be used in His mighty army.

Food for thought. I'm munching. Now I'm thinking about other things I fill my day with, and what I can be doing instead. Oh wow, I have so far to go and so much changing and growing to do. It's fun! I'm excited!

p.s. I didn't do shopping or coffee either, just for the record ;-)