To Trick or To Treat, That is the Question

Julia's friend, K, spent the night with us this weekend. Around 10 pm, I insisted that the girls go to bed because they had an out of town soccer game the next day. We turned out the lights, but within minutes, Julia was back in the kitchen looking for a night light. Her room was too dark, and K was afraid.

The only night light we found had a burned out bullb.

In a flash of inspiration, I remembered the box of Halloween stuff we'd been meaning to bring down from the attic.

"Hey, tell Dad to grab that plug-in jack o'lantern from the Halloween box," I yelled. "They can use that for a night light."

As they brought down the crazy smiling jack o'lantern, in all its orange and yellow glory, I remembered an important fact. K's family doesn't celebrate Halloween.

And from the look on K's face, I could see that having that jack o'lantern smiling at her through the dark all night was definitely not going to lessen her fear.

I love Jesus and seek to follow Him.  And my kids trick or treat.

K's family loves Jesus and seeks to follow Him. And they "just say no" to Halloween.

Thankfully, a Christmas box in the attic contained a couple of night lights. Hmmm. . . there was an angel and a Santa Claus. . . For this occasion, I picked the angel, just to be safe, and soon the girls were fast asleep.

K's mom and I had a good laugh about this the next day. She shared a little about how their family came to the decision to abstain from Halloween. My family has read similar information and come to a different decision. We were both OK.

I love this about the body of Christ.  When we are at our best, we can respect our differences, the fact that on some issues, the way we live out our faith may look different. I'm not talking about compromising key doctrines of the faith. I'm not talking about a touchy-feely "the Bible can mean different things to different people" kind of thing. I'm talking about arriving at different conclusions about how to apply scriptural principles to a situation that's not specifically addressed in the Bible.

So whether or not you trick or treat tonight, be safe, love your family and most of all, love God and seek to honor Him in all you do. Happy October 31 everyone!