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Halloween and "trick or treating" can be very controversial subjects among Christians. Some Christians are convicted that it is wrong to acknowledge Halloween in any way; some plan alternatives to Halloween, and some Christians just don't see what all the fuss is about. Regardless of where you stand on the celebration of Halloween, there are some basic things that we all need to remember. Everything that we do is to be done in love and for the glory of God. We must know the difference between a command and a conviction. A command is where the scripture spells out in black and white "Thou Shall or Thou Shalt Not" do something. A conviction is an opinion that you should or should not do something. Usually convictions come from the Holy Spirit and deal with a Christian at their own level of spiritual growth. You should not force your conviction on someone else. If you feel strongly about it, you can gently in love share your conviction with others; but the best thing to do is to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show them the thruth. (It is the Holy Spirit's job to do the convicting.) Having said all that, I am gently and in love going to share my convictions about Halloween. About two years after I was Saved, I felt that based on what I knew of the scripture at that time, that I should not celebrate Halloween. I had three boys aged 11, 8, & 5. My youngest was in Kindergarten and they were having a Halloween party. He did not understand spiritual things and I explained how I (and my husband) felt about Halloween. Basically that it was a Satanic celebration and we did not want to give any place to the devil. Bearing in mind the scripture that says to "avoid the appearance of evil" (1 Thess 5:22), I dressed my 5 year old in his "cat and the fiddle" pajamas and made his face a cat face with eyebrow pencil and sent him to the party at school. The two older boys who were able to understand more, did not wear costumes. As for "trick or treating", I found some Halloween Gospel TRacts that I put with the candy and I let the boys answer the door and pass out the treats. I also bought each of the boys their own bag of candy so they would be rewarded for sharing the gospel and not participating in Halloween. The other thing about "trick or treat" that bothers me is that the children are saying "Give me a treat or else". They are going door to door demanding to be given a treat. I don't think in this materialistin, me first, look out for number one society we live in; that we need to encourage this attitude in our children. Hope this gives you something to think about. Remember Jesus loves you and I do, too. ~Nana |