Choose faith, not fear.

As of late, I have becoming more and more convicted about the way our society tells us to celebrate holidays. It kind of hit me really hard this past Easter season, how much we (Americans) have cheapened a holy day as precious to our faith as Easter. The death and RESURRECTION of our Lord and Savior, the One who gave it all so that we can have life everlasting, a life that we do not deserve in the least. This last week I recalled a status update I wrote on facebook at Easter time along the lines of being saddened by the pastels, bunnies, and eggs that have stolen our focus from the celebration of Jesus' sacrifice for US. It's one thing to celebrate spring and the fun colors, it's another to let it completely take our focus off the beauty of the Man with nail scarred hands.

While thinking about how saddened I was at Easter this year, I have also been feeling sad about the celebration of Halloween. For some reason, it has never set well with me to take part in a holiday that was founded on searching out spirits of the dead and chasing away demons. Not only is that something weird and dark to celebrate in general, but especially as a Christian who claims to live in the light of Jesus Christ. I hate that it's called a holiday which = holy day. My best friend, Tara, was raised in a wonderful Christian home, and her parents chose to celebrate All Saints Day (Nov. 1) rather than Halloween. I always found this very interesting, since I was a kid I thought I would like to celebrate this holiday rather than Halloween, with my future family! I have been doing a little bit of research this past week on All Saints Day and the founding of Halloween. All Saints Day was actually founded long before Halloween, and it is to celebrate the lives of saints / martyrs who lived for the Faith.

I have had this topic fresh on my mind for a while now, and yesterday I just so happened to run into Tara's mom, Beth's blog. Very fascinating. She is a FANTASTIC writer. Her latest post is on this very topic and the reasoning behind her choosing to celebrate this holiday with her family rather than Halloween. It is very cool timing, and I think God is really teaching me something big through this. I am going to get back to my research now, and soak in all my thoughts. I have many more to write about, but can't seem to compose them well right now.