Points2Ponder
So I took my two grand-kids to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Macie was with Nana, and Mykai hung out with his Nano.
He and I walked into the store part of the restaurant, and this sales person greeted us with, “we have 25% off all of our Halloween merchandise!”
I politely thanked her and kept walking around.
I am not lying when I say, she circled around the aisle to catch me a second time and said, “All of our Halloween candy AND merchandise 25% off!”
I had tried to be nice, but…come on? A second time in 2 minutes?
So, I took a deep breath and said, “We do not celebrate Halloween. Thank you anyway!”
Mykai pipes up, “I do!”
The sales person was startled by my revelation…and my grandson’s!
Mykai and I kept walking, and he asks, me “Nano, why don’t you celebrate Halloween?”
Here we go…I had hoped to avoid this just because I know his parents do not share our beliefs about this. His mom was raised to abstain, but his dad was not.
My wife and I raised all six of our kids not to participate in Halloween for spiritual reasons. That’s how they were raised.
I can also tell you that, since they are all adults now, not a single one of them kept the tradition going. They all participate in some way.
We accept that it is now their choice to make.
I had an experience when I was a youth pastor of having a young man who came to our youth service and accepted Christ. He was a warlock!
Once his coven found out that he had converted to Christianity, they marked him for death for their Halloween sacrifice. I had to physically help him move to another town and keep him in hiding during the Halloween season because—his coven had marked him as their sacrifice. He had betrayed the coven code, and they had to make an example out of him.
He stayed away for more than a year. I kept in contact with him, and he continued with Christ.
It was then that I knew...this stuff can be serious and true!!
So… my kids know why it is real to me.
POINTS2PONDER Why do we hesitate to state our beliefs when they are not a majority opinion? Why do we ponder the pros and cons of simply saying why we believe what we believe, regardless of the possibility that it will not be accepted and may cause us to be ostracized? Why can’t we just say “I believe this way, even if you don’t?”
I didn’t want to stir up trouble, but…my grandson is quite articulate for 6 years old, and he asks inquisitive questions and thinks things through, so…
I took a deep breath and started.
I said, “You know Christmas has Santa and reindeer and a Christmas tree, but we know the true meaning of Christmas is the Nativity scene and Jesus being born?”
He nodded. So far, so good. I haven’t lost him.
So I proceeded, “Well, there’s the fun side of Halloween, the candy and trick or treating, just like Santa stuff is for Christmas, but…Nana and Nano know that there’s the serious side that has to do with people who serve the devil and do bad things, like the opposite of the Nativity and Jesus being born at Christmas!”
His eyes were focused on every word I was saying. I could see he was processing it and attempting to understand the comparison/contrast to Christmas.
Mykai then said, “You mean like the gh0sts and goblins and witches and zombies are the bad stuff about Halloween?”
I nodded, not wanting to say too much more until I knew that he had processed what I had said and either didn’t understand or …did!
He said, “Yeh, I don’t dress up like those things because they are bad. I dress up like super heroes or funny cartoon characters.”
Wow! Crisis averted. He seemed to understand what I was saying.
I was impressed.
Then he looked at me and said, “I just like the candy!”
I cracked up laughing. He kept walking. Conversation over.
My grandson had heard it all—listened intently to my reasons for not participating in Halloween, and….
Summed it all up by his assessment of why he was going to participate anyway.
It all came down to the candy!
And, I had to admit, from his perspective, the boy has a point!
Guess we adults can ponder the moral or spiritual consequences or repercussions of participating or abstaining from Halloween.
But, for a kid, it’s still “Trick or Treat, smell my feet, please give me something good to eat!”
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