A Hallelujah Party
October 31st will be here before you know it and for Christians the responses on how to respond to Trick or Treating vary greatly. As a young mother of six children who loved eating candy and wearing costumes on any given day, I felt challenged to come up with alternatives to being excited about witches, werewolves and scary masked individuals knocking on our door. Fortunately, we lived a top a 2 acre hill and very few children wanted to make the hike to our house, so we never had to shun our neighbors and always had candy to give out. We would get all dressed up and drive to visit both sets of grandparents who gave away money and candy! Our church always had a great fall festival and the children were encouraged to wear "appropriate" costumes that did not invoke fear. (Hmm, that might eliminate clowns for some of us).
Several years, we lessoned the blow of not going out by giving the children money and letting them dress up and go to Toys R Us! Now that we live in the country on 5 acres we have no trick or treaters knocking on our door and we have come up with a really fun alternative. We have a hallelujah party.
The grandchildren dress up in wonderful costumes and we have adults (parents and grandparents) stationed outside at 6 doors around our house. Each adult selects praise music to be playing on their phone. When the kids come a knocking they say, "Hallelujah" and receive their loot. They get to go around two times and seem quite content with their haul.
There are several sites I respect who have articles related to whether Christians should celebrate Halloween. While personally I'm not a fan of what can go on this night, the articles have reminded me, evil goes on everyday, not just October 31st. Also, my most prominent spiritual gift is that of hospitality, so Halloween is an excellent opportunity to open doors to neighbors and show the light of Christ.
I'm holding onto these verses and praying about Christ centered ways to spread the love this October 31st by treating some people to a load of love.
All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. 1 Corinthians 10:23
Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31
Turn from evil and do good... Psalm 34:14
How awesome would it be to buy flashlights in bulk and give them to the trick or treaters in your neighborhood? Flashlights were one of the party favors at our daughter's wedding and each light had a sticker that said,
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12
Let your light shine so people everywhere see your good actions and praise God in heaven because of it. Matthew 5:16
Christian perspectives on Halloween (You may have to copy/paste these)
https://happyhomefairy.com/what-to-tell-your-kiddos-about-halloween-a-christian-perspective/
https://www.gominno.com/parents/halloween-meaning-history-christianity/
https://www.gty.org/library/articles/A123/christians-and-halloween
https://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/should-my-family-celebrate-halloween/
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/holidays/should-christians-really-celebrate-halloween.html
The Song
"Raise a Hallelujah"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2XtRuPfaAU
