Halloween

I both love and hate this time of year.
Fall has always been my favorite season what with gorgeously poetic scenes of colored leaves, cool breezes and the natural tendency to reflect upon life and thankfulness.

Halloween, however, is a different thing. It came up this past weekend with "Mima" as our little niece Allie is two and gets dressed up in ADORABLE little costumes and I believe goes trick or treating. I'm not judging, because I don't think this is a "cross to die on" so to speak. But with some things that are in stores and shows and movies on TV and Ryan and I's very different growing ups, we have discussed our take on Halloween and Ryan's mom asked about it.

Our kids will not go trick or treating, we will not celebrate Halloween and we will definitely not take part in anything creepy. I still remember stories my brothers told me in the spirit of scaring on Halloween. (They got in trouble of course but teenage boys will be what they are.)
I had nightmares for years as a young child. I had to have a very specific night time routine that consisted of prayer time with my Daddy, (usually holding me in his lap and praying over me) a tape of my Nonnie reading scripture and peaceful stories, and the light still on. I went to bed an hour earlier than my other siblings so that I was asleep by the time my sister came on and needed to turn of the light and the tape to be able to get to sleep herself.
I don't blame my bad dreams on Halloween but it certainly does provide plenty of material for nightmares. I've always been real sensitive to dark things and maybe that's some hidden spiritual discernment that God gave me to help balance out some of my naivety.

Whatever the case, I was never upset about not going trick or treating, other kids costumes would have scared the bejeesis out of me! (Heck I didn't even like being down stairs when they came to our door for candy!)

I did however LOVE an excuse to dress up as some beautiful princess of a far away land and we did that in the fall time at church festivals and outreaches where no one dressed as anything scary and what we were celebrating was The Harvest time! Not dead things and evil spirits!
But I dressed up more times not related to Halloween too. I dressed up until I was a teenager! :) And this aspect, and the celebration of the fall time, "The Harvest" The Bible refers to so often, THAT I'm okay with.

Ryan and I both agree, in situations like this, err on the side of caution. Don't mess with evil spirits or anything that seems to be more of Satan or the world than of Christ.

So that's how I feel about that!