Trunk or Treat 2012

Trunk or Treat 2012

 

B wanted to do a nativity-themed trunk for our first trunk or treat with her beloved doll WIQ (which is pronounced "Phillip" in case you were wondering) starring as the baby Jesus and a  'Jesus loves you and me' poster that she made herself.

 

We decided to go handmade with her angel costume so I found a fabulous tutorial at Maker Mama to make angel wings out of paper plates! Can I just take a moment to say how much I love the interwebs...I could never think up this stuff on my own. They turned out great and for the 10 minutes or so that she actually wore them we got several complements, not bad for $0! You can also see her halo that I made with some pipe cleaners and a headband. I thought she might not like it but she thought it was perfect so who am I to argue with that!

 

I was running the Plinko game (remember that one?) so I ended up doing about 300 squats over the course of the evening. It was so busy I didn't even realize it until the end of the night when I was hoarse and sore. Hopefully it will help make up for all the Butterfingers I ate earlier in the day...

 

A, my oldest, passed out the candy and punched holes in each child's card that came by. A few times I caught myself saying "Ok, go over there so she can punch you and give you candy!". I don't think anyone noticed though. :-)

 

At the end of the night we had a great time, burned or consumed many calories and most importantly showed several hundred of our neighbors the love of Christ. I have no idea what we'll do next year but this year was probably my favorite so far.

Reclaiming Halloween

About a week or so ago I posted about how we've been rethinking Halloween and what that means for our family this year so I thought I'd come back and share what we plan to do.

Fortunately, this year Halloween falls on a Wednesday so our church has decided as a missions opportunity to hold a trunk-or-treat and invite the neighborhood to come. Oh, I can hear it now:
Come on, so you change the name a little and do it in the church parking lot instead of your block, how's that really different?

Well, truthfully it doesn't have to be. We could dress up, throw candy at some kids and go home no different than if we'd done nothing at all. The actions by themselves are worthless, empty filthy rags without God.

Or we could plan a bunch of stuff and invite God to come and hope He blesses it. "Hey, God look at all we're doing here for You! What would You do without us?" type of thing. That would be worthless too and maybe worse because we're deceiving ourselves as well as others.

But here's where it's at for me and why it makes sense for our family:

Recently our pastor said something that really stuck with me - God can take something meant for evil and reclaim it for His glory. He can. And does. The story of Joseph is a good example of God doing this, Moses is another. As Christians, we don't have to hide inside while darkness gathers around us, we can allow God to use us to fulfill His mission!

Here's another thing, God gives certain commands in the Bible and those commands are not contingent on the calendar. There's no out just because it's October 31 any more than thinking we only need to tell others about God on Christmas and Easter. 1 John 5:3 says, "This is love for God: to obey His commands." and in John 15:14 "You are my friends if you do what I command.".

• We are commanded to put Him first.

• We are commanded to love our neighbor.

• We are commanded to serve. The first time I typed sever...yikes!

• We are commanded to spread the gospel.

I'm sure some will disagree but for us these commands apply here. This is something that we are to do every day, and I think that this is an opportunity to do it on a larger scale than we could otherwise.

God is the focus, we are the followers.

We can't do the work, only God can, but we can be obedient to His commands and I don't think that we would accomplish that effectively by either boycotting Halloween by hiding in our houses or embracing Halloween as willing participants. This is the way that we feel God is leading our family to spend this time, it may look different for yours. I'd love to hear your thoughts and plans in the comments!

Linking to:

Rethinking Halloween

 

 

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.

Colossians 2:8

 

Oh boy. This might be a controversial post if anyone actually read my blog but me...ha ha. 

 

I'm sure that we all know something that fits the description, maybe a certain movie or book that you could tell in an instant wasn't Godly but others around you were deceived. For me that would be something like horoscopes, which seems obvious but yet several of my christian friends get them daily on Facebook so maybe it's more deceptive for others. I think the real deception is that it becomes so commonplace that it's the norm. You don't question it because it doesn't occur to you do do so.

 

Several times we have rented movies and to me the messages are so blatantly ungodly that I can't watch it but when I say something it's met with eye rolls and "it's just a movie". I want to say, "No, that's what the devil wants you to think, guard your heart!". Other times I realized something that I'd never questioned before went against the Word of God when I watched it again at a later time.

 

This is why it is so important to know scripture by heart and to be in the Word daily. As I get deeper into God's word I see so much more clearly the things that aren't from Him. Things that not long ago were acceptable to me are now seen in a whole new "light", if you know what I mean.

 

Here's a recent example from an unlikely source: Pinterest. I've really enjoyed Pinterest and I've found some great ideas on there. In fact, most of the dinners I've made lately I found on Pinterest! Anyway, I follow a lot of craft, home decor and educational bloggers on Pinterest and about a month ago I joined a christian pinners group as well. As it turned to fall, I noticed something shocking that I'm not sure if I would have recognized if I hadn't seen it in this manner. Suddenly, next to all the pictures of Christ, scriptures and uplifting posts were witches, skeletons, and ghosts. Mind you that these weren't hard-core horror images, just cutesy craft projects for Halloween but even so the difference between the two was shocking and made an impact on me in a way that I'm not sure even words would have done. It really brought home the verses that question what darkness has in common with light and made me question some of the things that I accept just because they are tradition.

"See to it" implies action. We must actively examine what philosophies or world views that we listen to, read, see, etc and make sure that they line up with what is in the Bible, like the Bereans in Acts 17:11.

 

So here's my challenge:  This week I'm rethinking Halloween and what it means for our family. My GMG friends already know but I'll share later what we plan to do instead.

 

Think about the things that you've read and watched in the last few days. What philosophies are you being exposed to? Are there any traditions you go along with just because it's what you've always done?  For the next few days be intentional about questioning what you read, watch and hear. See if anything surprises you that you might not have noticed otherwise.  Most importantly - spend time reading the Bible & pray! Ask God for wisdom and to show you the things that don't line up with His word and trust that He will do it.

 

Linking to: Women in the Word Wednesdays at www.goodmorninggirls.org