Our Halloween View

I remember when I was young, asking what Halloween was and wondering what we were celebrating.  The atmosphere struck me as strange even at probably 8 years old.  Whole neighborhoods were decorated in dark and gloom and had an evil essence about them.  The answer I received was an unsure one but why would it have been questioned anyway?  It was celebrated by our entire community and had been celebrated all our lives as a day to dress up and get candy. 

When I married my husband, I remember going to work one day together in October and driving through a highly Halloween decorated community.  I mentioned to my husband that I thought Halloween was such a strange holiday and I didn't understand what it was.  He explained to me a little bit about what he learned the history to be.  This was the first time I had ever heard Halloween painted in a dark light but it all made sense to me then.  I began researching it and have had nothing to do with the day since that time.

My son is 5.  People may think we are depriving him of just a really fun day to spend with community.  I find it to be more complex than that.  The interesting thing is, he sees it as a dark and scary day.  He does not like how all the houses are decorated.  I would have to talk him into Halloween if we were going to partake.  I'm not saying he wouldn't have fun after starting if he were assured by us it's ok but he would need some coercing to get him to go up to a door with jackolanterns, spider webs, and ghosts on the porch.

So what explanation have I given my son about this day that our church program was canceled and all his friends are talking about their costumes and trick or treating?  I have told him that we do not think we would be glorifying God by participating in this day.  I explained what the people believed who started this holiday and he has not questioned it at all that we do not celebrate.  The bigger problem is how to answer the questions of why others who are our Christian family are celebrating. 

Following is an explanation of the history of Halloween.  There are many more out there that are more detailed, I just chose one that had the basics in it and presented facts opposed to opinions.  Be advised, if you do not want to be convicted or have a struggle over the matter, don't learn of the day's history http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

Now, if you don't know what the day stands for and you're just going along in good fun, perhaps that's ok with God, I honestly don't know and don't choose to judge or condemn anyone out there who particpates in the day.  As for me and my house, we try to live our life with purpose.  We want to honor and glorify God in all that we do and we try to see a big picture of who we are serving with our actions. 

H is for Heaven

Revelation 21:4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

I have always enjoyed discussing heaven with Asher.  I love to see him excited about heaven and am quite humored by his angst when he asks about his toys, his bed, his dog, his bunny, his video games, and you can imagine that list goes on and on.  Of course, it is very hard to convince a 5 year old that heaven will be so amazing and wonderful that he would never miss anything he has here on earth.

To begin our discussion on heaven, I read from Revelation 21-22 to Asher being careful to draw his attention to exciting and interesting points.  Afterward, I asked him to draw me a picture of heaven and the picture above is his vision of heaven.

I asked him to explain it to me and I will do my best to relay his description:  The red line on the bottom is the ground, the yellow line is a golden street.  The red wavy line is a city and above that is the lake of fire.  The pink dots are "bad people" who are going to be in the lake of fire and above that in yellow is the "new city" and all the wavy lines are gates.  The figure in the middle is a frog (don't know where that came from) and the other black figure is a butterfly.

This told me a lot about what things stood out to him and what things he has a clear understanding of.  The most important thing I think we can get out of teaching our kids about heaven is that they are rightfully excited and my son is yet he has a healthy respect for death and losing somebody from our presence here on earth.  He also has a deep sadness for people who will spend eternity in hell.

Revelation 21:8 was alarming to him but I'm glad he asked about it.  When he gathered that liars would go to hell, he was concerned that he would go to hell if (or when) he lies.  I explained that people who don't know Jesus have no sadness for breaking God's laws and they are not forgiven for their sins and will go to hell.  I explained that if he loves Jesus and accepts God's gift of salvation, he is forgiven for all of his sins even lies and will go to heaven.  I concluded that if he loves God, he will try not to lie because he wants to do things that are pleasing to God. 

G is for Grace

G race

Ephesians 2:5  It is by grace you have been saved.  When I come to each letter of the alphabet,  I take opportunity to give my son a lesson that will impact his life and his heart. Learning about grace is certainly one of those instances.  How do you teach a 5 year old about grace?  I find it hard to understand, myself but we went at it together.  Here was where we started;   Ephesians 2:8-10  ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God  ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork,  created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

I found it interesting that when I browsed through the internet on the matter, I found the question all over, “What is grace?”  It is described as a synonym to forgiveness and related to favor.  Many Christians answered the question explaining it to be a gift from God that we do not deserve but He wants us to have it.  There were many ideas of what grace is and what it means to different people. 

God is the ultimate example of grace.  He sent His son to die for our sins so that we may have eternal life.  We do not deserve heaven but we have been saved by grace.  We cannot earn our salvation, it is a gift.  God wants us to have this gift. 

I stuck to elaborating more on grace by discussing examples of people who showed grace by forgiving others who perhaps, did not deserve it.  Joseph was one of those examples.  He was full of grace as he forgave his brothers for selling him to the Egyptians.  If you take the story of Joseph, I love how his life completely parallels to Ephesians 2:8-10.  All of his works, he credited to God including the deciphering of dreams.  He did not boast of his abilities to organize and lead.  He was God’s handiwork and did such good works even saving God’s people from famine all which were prepared for him (as he was also being prepared) by God in advance.   

F is for Fall

We made this with an oatmeal container covered in canvas.  I hot glued straw around the bottom and top rim.  Using potato halves I created stamps by cutting away the excess of the shape.  Keep in mind that for letters, you have to make the stamp backward so it will appear correctly on the stamped surface.    I squirted acrylic fall paint colors on paper plates and with my assistance, Asher got to stamp into the paint and then onto the fabric.  Don't rinse off your stamp before changing colors if you want the multicolored leaf look.  Glue on all kinds of fancies and have a great time  Being a "use what ya got" kind of gal, I used canvas but burlap would be awesome.  I'm sure some mums or some prettier foliage would also be  nice but these are just leftover stems from wreaths that I've made in the past.  Asher enjoyed it and loves having things placed around the house that he has done.