Can Halloween be beneficial to the cause of Christ??

Before October ends and Halloween is in the past, I've gotta share some of my thoughts on the whole idea of this holiday. It's interesting how little we think about the consequences of things like Halloween before having kids...

I've always enjoyed Halloween. My parents made sure to keep all the scary stuff out of it. We enjoyed dressing as crayons or indians and walking around our safe and pleasant neighborhood with all our friends. My favorite Halloween memory was at Indiana Wesleyan with my best friend. We went to class dressed up and left a crate with candy in it outside our dorm room door. I love Jamie.

Derek's family didn't participate in Halloween. Since we've been married, Derek has thoroughly enjoyed dressing up. (Today he was so mad at himself for not thinking of having everyone dress up at school). He loves dressing up the kids and the dogs too.

Marie and Lexi, aka "Hunny" pot and Bee (2009)

After we were married, I was so excited to pass out candy. Right now I cannot for the life of me figure out why I was so excited about spending money we've never had on candy that we usually ended up eating most of. Besides that, the first year, no one came to our door. The next year only like 2 kids came. The 3rd year, our first guest was a teenager who wasn't wearing a costume. ((That just irritates me)).

This year we plan to trick or treat with my little sibs in their neighborhood. Jack and Marie are both going as pumpkins. (I got both of their costumes on half-off day at Goodwill! Although I'm a little nervous about Jack's fitting. He's a big kid!)

So now we're almost caught up to my point... Last Sunday Pastor Blodgett spoke on alcohol (which someday I hope to be brave enough to post about, but for now I'll just say - I went into that message full of pride and left it convicted, humbled, and overwhelmingly grateful for First Baptist Church and it's pastor). While the focus was on drinking alcohol, the application is limitless. As I pondered what we should do as a family about Halloween, I thought about the passages Pastor B brought up... 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 10:23.

"All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify." (10:23, NASB)

So I thought, how on earth is Halloween profitable or edifying? It's fun, and who doesn't love candy?? But beneficial? I couldn't justify it. But I couldn't seem to let it go either.

The other day my little sister said something like, "You can make any holiday anything you want." How true is that. So we've decided instead of turning out all our lights and hiding from the neighbors, pretending like we're too good for this nation-wide holiday, we're going to make this opportunity beneficial, edifying, spiritually profitable. Our children are going to grow up enjoying dressing up, eating candy, and sharing the Gospel with every kid who knocks on our door.

Going up to someone to share the Gospel is not easy. But on Halloween, children and parents are knocking on your door, willing to take whatever you have to give them!! So now, to me, not only is participating in this "evil" holiday beneficial, not participating is seriously missing out on probably the easiest way to further God's Kingdom!

It doesn't matter how hard the world tries to shut out God, He is always there. We, as believers, have the awesome responsibility of letting everyone know that! Halloween is a great opportunity to slap Satan in the face and to teach our children about sharing the Good News in even the darkest situations!

Here's a link to a free tract download to be handed out with life savers!
Here's another cool idea to hand out - Scarecrow Lollipops with tract!

How do you plan on spending Halloween night?