Halloween Rant

So, I really have no problem with dressing up in costumes, trick or treating, carving pumpkins, and having a pumpkin pie and/or candy corn stomach-ache. I've done all of the above. I just desire to do so with reasonable discernment and read a lot of stuff that's helped me do so. 

This year my wife and I dressed like Zoo Keepers and took our little Monkey around the town with some friends.
We walked around enjoying a really beautiful RWC Fall night (with only some light rain sprinkling here and there). Isella was a blast, looking cute and saying, "Trick or Treat," and "Halloooo-weeeen." We all just watched our friend's kid get the candy and at each house he made sure to get one for Isella, too. (We just didn't get candy cause my daughters still too young, in our opinion, for chocolate and sweets). 

Now for the rant: One obstacle to our enjoyment of night was seriously the amount of scary images, scary people, and down right scary sounds-in the name of "decorations." Honestly it just seems to me glorification of evil and horror. It was quite the experience in  a short 45 minute jaunt around a local neighborhood with our friends. We were greeted by  a scary woman in a scary-goth-nun costume with a swinging skull head (screaming murderously, non-stop) outside her door, hanging ghosts and goblins from windows and trees and other stuff that scares kids, little kids especially.  This acceptable part of society is really unacceptable to me. It made me feel uncomfortable. I found myself many times trying to shelter Isella's eyes. We wonder why children have nightmares. Thankfully, she's too young to really know what's going on, I hope. I know it's only one month a year, but I think we'll really have to deal with this in greater detail at some point in the future. As we drove home I wondered about maybe starting a safe, non-scary event,  held on our Church's campus. We'll see. When you know God and his goodness...When you know God and the values of his Kingdom, we must be different. I was reminded tonight that we are not of this world. The word of God speaks to us, and we must respond. I'm not trying to be self-righteous or too holy-but on the other hand, if we could do it, humbly, wouldn't we want to be more holy? Food for thought. End of Rant. Now I'm off to eat some pumpkin pie.