I (Karen Whiting) am writing this for October 31, That is Halloween on the calendar and one that is controversial with Christians. Some avoid it, some use it to reach out with church trunk or treat events, and others have mixed emotions. Choose to make it an opportunity to share about truth,Romans 8:28 reminds us that God together for His purpose. Focus today on what is in God’s purpose. When my children were young, we focused on truth and optical illusions as well taking time to discuss fear, good, and evil.

It’s good to discuss evil and things to avoid as well as staying spiritually safe. Make sure you are equipped to discuss topics like astrology and mediums and point out what the Bible has on these topics. Let them know the evils of witchcraft, fortunetelling, astrology and other dark activities that can connect people to demons.

Discuss truth and how we can be deceived. Just like a mask hides a person’s identity, many things can hide the truth. Truth is happy to be in the light and not hidden. This is a great day to look at optical illusions and try a few. like the following.

• Put a pencil in a clear glass of water. From the side the pencil appears broken because of light refraction. Light actually tricks us. Look up some illusions.
• A simple but fun activity is to let your child trace his or her hand on a piece of paper. Then outside the hand use a ruler to draw straight lines across the paper (but not across the hand. The connect the lines within the hand with curved lines. The hand appears to pop off the page. Color every other row across the page (the straight plus the curved ones) and the hand appears to pop off even more.

Many symbols are used at Halloween and some are items God created. Pumpkins are colorful and beautiful, a symbol of harvest and yet people use them to make scary faces. Light is a metaphor for Jesus and goodness. If you want to carve a jack-o-lantern avoid the scary faces and make it a cross or other symbol of Jesus to let the right shape shine out. Make pumpkin pie, bread, dips, and more, but use the pumpkin to share about harvest and nutrition.

Owls, spiders, and bats are God’s creatures. Look them up to find facts about them and how they help us.

We can use what is around us as teachable moments.

Thanks,

Karen