Out of the Mouths of Babes

When we first moved into our house a few years ago I made throw pillows for our couches & from the beginning they NEVER managed to stay on the couch for longer than ten minutes at a time. More often than not they would be scattered across the living room floor being crawled over & jumped on by the little people in our house. It is something that has driven us a bit crazy, especially Brian. Well, the other night Ben & Cedric decided to have a pillow fight with these pillows by throwing them across the room at each other & this is the brief conversation that took place:

Brian: "What are you doing?!?"

Ben & Cedric: "We're having a pillow fight!!!"

Brian: "It's not ok to throw those pillows in the house."

Ben: "But I thought they were called throw pillows?"



HA!! We never even thought of it that way!

Why Not Halloween?

I am no theologian, but as a Christian it is my responsibility to think thoroughly about everything in my life & act according to what God says in his Word about it. And as a mother seeking to raise my children in the fear & admonition of the Lord, this responsibility seems to take on more significant meaning, because now it's not just me who is being affected by my thoughts & actions, but the hearts of my children as well. So this brings us to Halloween. I know many people think we're a bit strange & don't understand the big deal about celebrating Halloween, because after all, it doesn't have to be all about zombies & witches & blood sucking vampires, right? But I would argue that even though there are people, even churches, who choose to have harvest celebrations where kids dress up like little lambs & firefighters, they are still taking part in a holiday that was founded on the fear of evil spirits & the worship of false gods and in modern times has become more a celebration of witches, goblins, & demons. We choose to not celebrate this holiday not because we're ultra conservative christians but rather because we strive to be like Christ in every aspect of our lives & we believe Halloween is a holiday that celebrates things that oppose this goal.
Halloween or All Hallows Eve is the day before All Saints Day, a day spent celebrating the righteous saints throughout Church history.  Much like the development of Mardi Gras, a day of indulgence, which is always the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.  Interestingly enough, most people in our communities today would probably know more about Halloween than All Saints Day, and more about Mardi Gras, than Ash Wednesday . . . but it wasn't always that way.
Now let me clarify that there are arguments for Christians to celebrate Halloween & we do not "look down upon" or judge others who choose to partake in this holiday & if children came to our door looking for candy we would cheerfully give them a handful, we simply choose not to partake ourselves because of our convictions.  Instead, we choose to celebrate a significant day in our church history, Reformation Day, which falls on October 31st as well.  We do not simply desire for this to be an alternate option for our children to have fun outside of the usual Halloween celebrations, but rather we are seeking to be faithful & desire to celebrate the works of Christ & the faithful Christians who have gone before us. (To learn more about Reformation Day you can go here: http://grantian.blogspot.com/2008/10/reformation-day.html.)

And there you have it! A short explanation of why we don't celebrate Halloween . . .  in case you were wondering. ;)