We dress our kids up in costumes and send them door to door admonishing them, “Don’t forget to say ‘trick or treat’ and ‘thank you’ when they give you a treat.” I remember Halloween as a fun, safe holiday in my small hometown in Texas. We went with neighborhood friends to other neighborhoods and knocked on doors… not knowing who might appear on the other side. That’s scary enough for most eight-year-olds.
Most of the people were really nice and cheerfully gave us candy and other treats. One man we all recognized from the local hardware store. He invited us into his house, then demanded, “Show me a trick and I’ll give you a treat.” We were so surprised by this, we had no idea what to do. “We don’t know any tricks,” my brother finally murmured.
The man laughed and gave us each a candy bar. “I’m just teasing you,” he said. “Go and have a good time.”
An older man and his wife opened the door together. “We’re sorry we’re out of candy,” the man said, “but come in and let us see your costumes.” We stepped inside and they oohed and aahed over us, then we left…without candy, but glad we had made an old couple happy. When our bags were full, we returned to my house and, realizing it was still early, we switched masks and went again.
That was Halloween the way it used to be. Someone might wake up to find an egg smashed on their car, but nothing truly bad or destructive happened. A few years later, people started finding needles and razor blades inside of apples and other treats. Each year these incidents spread and grew more deadly, so the holiday was ruined. Today, parents are urged to allow their children to trick or treat only at the homes of people they know personally or to remain in their own neighborhoods in order to be safe. Churches and other organizations began hosting Fall Festivals and trunk-or-treat events as safe alternatives for going door to door.
So many today, especially young people, are caught up in the world of vampires, witches and evil spirits. Hollywood and other money-making industries feed into this interest…and often even create it, in order to distract us from the reality that is life. What better time for them to do so than Halloween?
Spirits do exist… We all are bodies that contain spirits, but not all spirits are evil. God is a spirit, the Holy Spirit, and He longs for our spirits to connect with His. That’s what happens when we accept Him for who and what He is…the only one capable of giving life…eternal life, for those who believe. But that’s not the kind of spirits industry focuses on. They like the living dead, zombies…evil spirits that haunt houses and scare the bejeebers out of us…and what better targets than our children?
In speaking with some young people recently, I heard from so many of them that their life is depressing. They are bored, have no hope of things getting better. They see a future filled with more of the same… but still in such a rush to grow up and do grown-up things. They want to be independent and do things their way without parents or teachers telling them what to do, trying to lead them in directions they don’t want to go.
With so many of us grown-ups making bad choices, how are we to teach our kids to make better ones? Dads are sitting in prisons, moms are focused on the needs of their live-in boyfriends, and kids are left to fend for themselves. So many broken homes and broken hearts. How do we reach them?
Now seems to me the perfect time to teach them about the One spirit they need to connect with. We can know they’re safe only when we know they are guided by the One who loves them the most and wants only the best for them. We can’t make them believe it, but we must keep telling them…and showing them, by first getting our own lives on track and realizing that we can’t lead them without proper guidance ourselves. There are no do-overs in parenting, but there is always a start-over place…a time for change and turning to God. Don’t send your child out into the world not knowing what to expect or how to handle each situation they are faced with. Show them the ‘trick’ of faith and they will get the ‘treat’ of Godly love.
In order to stop this circle of depression and hopelessness our kids suffer from, we have to follow the advice given in Proverbs 22: 6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
