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Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

From Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

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If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome back to the show.

Hey everybody. Today we are talking about the desensitization of evil, and we’re encouraging parents to hold the.

Line on Halloween. But more than that, too.

Yeah. I mean, I think that this topic is a bigger we’re going to be talking more about just evil in general today, although it will apply a lot to Halloween as we’re in October.

But it’s so important to know where do you hold the line? What are you talking about? Like, yeah, I get it, but how far do we hold the line? You know what I mean? By the way, talk about parenting pressure. Pressure on parents. This has got to be one of the largest pressure points on Christian parents, I think.

Other topics that I think of would be like, if you’re going to allow your kids to do sleepovers or not, in addition to if you homeschool or if you do public school or private school. Right. Like all of these issues, there’s this element where parents experience parental peer pressure from their friends, from their community, even from family, where sometimes you feel like, oh man, am I going to create division that like people pleasing aspect of you can start to come out. I know that for myself, that was always something that I fought against in regards to like choosing to rise up and take on the authority that God had given me as a mom and say, hey, no, this is what I’m choosing to do or not do with my kids, and just standing firm in that decision, not imposing that upon other people per se, but but being willing to like, take a hard line and go, no, we’re not going to participate in that. And I think that, you know, for us as moms, especially women, struggle with the whole people pleasing thing more than guys. Yeah, right.

Like guys struggle with maybe allowing some time sometimes, maybe allowing more, you know, exposure to things than the moms.

I mean, guys, there is this element to even talk about movies for a second, right? Because there’s definitely like, um, a whole conversation we could do about movies and what movies are okay to watch. As Christians, we’ve actually never talked about that before. Would you guys be interested in that? Would that be a podcast episode? I know sometimes.

With my older boys, I’m like, wow, they can handle it. And you’re like, oh, I don’t know. I mean, sometimes we have these conversations, so.

We do a lot because as a woman and just how I’m wired, I have the gift of spiritual discernment. And so things tend to get to me more so than they do Isaac. Like, I don’t even like watching movies that have to do with war and stuff like that. Whereas like, guys tend to me and.

The boys tend to really enjoy.

It. Yeah. So anyway, but before we dive into this topic, I do want to share with you guys something really special, something really important in regards to, um, home education or even in the summer months or in Christmas break. Um, there are opportunities as parents where we need to step into the role of examining our kids education and seeing if there are any, um, holes in their education and the things that they’re learning. And you know, that Isaac and I have shared briefly in the past some of the different things that we have chosen to add into our kids curriculum, if you want to call it that, their education so that they’re more equipped and prepared when they launch. I mean, it’s an important thing to do. And a lot of parents, they think that for so many generations now, parents have been used to just putting their kids education in somebody else’s hands. And so one of the things that we’ve been using this year is master books. You can find out about them at Master books.com/courageous. Um, they have a whole host of different curriculums and subjects. Um, I know I’ve mentioned before the Constitution, the civics and Constitution curriculum that our teenagers are doing, as well as the apologetics books that they’re reading and the curriculum, the questions that you get to ask your kids. I think that, you know, when it comes to issues of today, current events, parents need to be proactive in educating their kids and telling them about it. Not just like looking at Instagram, seeing a video and going, oh, I’m worried about this. Did you know this is happening? Although it is important to be aware of what’s happening in your world, whether you’re going to X or to Epoch Times or to other places, you know, to get your news. Um, the reality is, is that our kids need to be equipped. Right? And so one of the places that we’re just super thankful for is master books, because we’re using their curriculum with a lot of our kids this year, and we’ve enjoyed it so far. So go check them out.

Speaking of news, I just found a new resource Wnt. Org. Some of you probably already heard of it, but they I think, developed the world magazine, all kinds of other news, online news that from a biblical perspective, um, seems like a fantastic organization at first glance. I’m still diving into it. But anyways, let’s dive into this. This is a tough subject, important subject, especially with Halloween showing up. And in the past it was interesting because we’ve talked about this before, but in the past it would be like, wow, this is a time where the other side, those proponents of evil, uh, are really amping up their game. And I just made this interesting point before we shot this. Well, I think we’re in a time now where the game is amped up every single day, right?

There’s just evil happening every day, whether it’s just sinful fleshly desires being overtly expressed outwardly. Um, people are just then there’s this like push for tolerance of sin, right? Or normalization of sin, if you will. Um, and as Christian parents recognizing the battle, you guys know that with Courageous Parenting and Be Courageous ministries, one of the biggest battles that we have seen is that kids are leaving the faith by age 18, 18 to 21. The church. Yeah. Or yeah, they’re leaving the church by age 21 ish, 18 to 21 whenever they’re graduating high school, um, in droves, like in massive quantities. Right. And so obviously, what parents have been doing, what the church has been doing at large in America has not been working, actually, I would.

Say and I would say on that subject, too, it’s more of a parenting problem than the church problem. But the church solution isn’t the solution. It should be the icing where the parents should be the actual cake. And and God is the baker. So, you know, to use a poor analogy. But, you know, it’s really, really important that parents realize, wow, you have so much influence. And you’re you.

Do have influence. And that’s why I guess, like today, just talking about this concept of like parents holding the line, rising up and choosing to be the parents in their kids lives. First of all, if I could just say like point one, you were giving your kids by God and you are called to a mission in their lives. Obviously, if you’ve been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know that you’re called to discipline them and to disciple them, to bring them up in the instruction and admonition of the Lord. You know what your role is as a Christian parent, but then how does it play out in everyday life, especially when you have events or For holidays, right. That come up, such as Halloween. Right. Which, by the way, happens to also be. It’s October 31st every year, which also happens to be Reformation Day. I know that Catholics have in the past celebrated All Saints Day. Um, that also was on the same day. We actually talk about these a lot in some of our other podcast episodes, and we’re not going to be diving into the content that we talk about in those podcast episodes. But if that’s super interesting to you, I want to encourage you to go find podcast episode number 39. I believe it’s in season one. Um, and it was our the very first one. Should Christians celebrate Halloween was what? You can also.

Just google courageous Parenting and the topic Halloween. Yeah. And you’ll find them.

Yeah. There’s another one though. That’s episode 266, season five. It’s navigating Halloween as Christian parents. Um, and, you know, obviously we have a ton of resources that we’re going to be giving you guys this week, actually. Right. So we always send out an email the week that we’re for every episode weekly regarding like what are the basic bullet points, what are the scripture passages and references that we tackle? What are the key points in this week’s podcast episode that goes out by email? So if you’re not on our email list, you’ve got to sign up for our email list. Just go to Be Courageous Ministry. Org and this week when we’re sending out this episode, we will also send you guys the free Pumpkin Gospel. We will send you the free Candy scriptures, um, as well as links to the podcast episodes and the blog posts that are just so important for parents to be reading and learning.

So subscribe so you never miss the episodes. You might be listening to this a couple weeks later and you’re like, I missed that. Well, don’t miss it. Subscribe on your favorite app and I will send it again Friday through email. So make sure you get that you know.

On this topic just for a second. You know, I got a lot of messages on social media this week because I was making laundry detergent and I was cleaning the bathroom floor using shaving cream. And people were like, what? You’re up to.

Some weird things, weren’t you?

Well, no. No. Not weird. Yeah, I made laundry soap for years, but but the point is, is I shared about it, you know, and I don’t usually share about all the homemaking things that I do, but because we have the heart of the home podcast, I thought, hey, I’ll start sharing some of these tips. And one of the reels is already over 20,000 views. It’s doing really well, and that was just teaching people how to clean grout in a bathroom floor to get urine out. Right? Because when you’re potty trained, believe.

What she used. We’re not going to tell you you got to go to Instagram. But you know, it’s crazy.

But but what I do want to say is if you’re on the email list, you’re going to get those recipes. Because we did send out the laundry, the dry laundry.

Since our newsletter just went out, I’m gonna send it out again end of this week to it has that recipe in it.

Okay, that’s a good idea. So anyway, just make sure you’re on the email list. That’s the point because that’s where all the important information comes from. So you guys obviously we’re talking about Halloween. And so our first point is that you have to be sober minded and recognize that there is an agenda, a spiritual agenda by the enemy to make your kids comfortable with evil. Yep, you heard me. The enemy wants them to be okay with listening to evil, watching evil, participating in evil. That that’s ultimately he wants our children’s hearts and he wants our hearts.

Over time, it develops an appetite for evil as well, which is really interesting. In fact, there’s proof of that with some of the endorphins that are released, right?

I mean, yeah, so if we were to go into like some of the aspects of Halloween. Right. There’s trick or treating and obviously there’s a candy high. When kids get candy, there’s what goes up must come down. Um, personally, I’ll just put a little side note in here. One reason why we don’t do the trick or treating aspect, and the main reason is because of the fear factor. Okay. It’s just the scary costumes that are out there that people like to scare kids and it’s just creepy. What if it’s creepy walking up and.

But what if. I mean, I know I’m supposed to do this part later when I see the opposite side for a second just to challenge the thought. But what if my kids are already desensitized? We’ve been doing this for a long time.

Well, then that’s an issue that you need to actually confront your kids about. And saying, I didn’t do this right. Like I realized that I exposed you to way to many things. And I said things like, oh, it’s not scary. It’s not real, when in reality, like, it’s it might not be like someone wearing a scary mask with like, an axe coming out of their head or something like that. Like, yes, it’s not a real axe. Yes. That’s not real blood. Yes, that’s a mask. Yes. It’s not like technically real. But should a kid not be scared of that? Actually, I think they should be scared of that. We should be frustrated by that. That should, like, irritate our souls because it’s not holy.

Well, I think what happens too is, is everybody wants a little bit more. They want a little bit more. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this. You know, if you go watch a movie that’s a good movie in a theater. And the previews come on beforehand. You see, sometimes these previews of, like, crazy films, right? And I can tell that these films have made progress in trying to make it scarier and scarier and scarier and scarier. These certain kinds of thrillers. Right, right. That we don’t watch, we don’t like those. But but, um, and it’s to to is to is to appease and a growing appetite within people because they always want to experience just a little bit more scary. And where does that go. And so it’s important to think about that. If we’re feeding our children these things and they’re becoming desensitized, well, there’s actual and a little bit of an addiction that can happen with some people because there’s an adrenaline rush. It releases endorphins. Even some people can release dopamine, which they like. And it’s actually natural. It’s a natural high that develops and it becomes addictive. And you want more of it. That’s right. And so you want your kids to want more of that.

Or. Well, you don’t want your kids to want more. That’s the question do you. Yes. And so asking yourself that question is like, wow, okay. I didn’t really realize that when they’re getting scared, it’s all in the name of fun, quote unquote. But the reality is what is it that it’s actually doing to our kids physically is what you’re talking about, right. And recognizing like, we all know that there are people out there that are thrill seekers, adventurous adventure junkies is what they call them, right? Sure. Where they love the thrill, the the adrenaline rush of living on the edge and different things like that. Right. And, and this is like a smaller version of that kid size, actually, where they get scared about something, right? And then they’re like, oh, that was fun. I want to go do it again. Right? Whereas some kids are like, I don’t want to do it anymore. And I remember years ago just to share personally, it’s not like. You know, Isaac and I have been parenting for a really long time. I mean, comparatively speaking, we’ve been parents for 24 years, and and when we first had our first 2 or 3 kids, this was a really hard thing for us.

Um, right away, you guys probably know part of my testimony as to how we got into homeschooling. We put our oldest in a Christian preschool and six weeks into it, guess what? Halloween. And I just didn’t feel right about Halloween. And I was confused why. At a Christian preschool, we were celebrating Halloween and there was no like, regulations about not dressing up like a witch because witches are real. Like, okay, witchcraft is a real satanic thing. It is a real religion. And so for kids to be dressing up as witches, it’s like, really, are we going to play with the devil? I just like in my mind, I just felt icky about it. I didn’t have a clear conscience about it. And here I had my three year old daughter and I had to make this first time decision. And so we decided to pull her out of that school. We tried a different school that also did not work out. And so thus then began my first journey with homeschooling, which.

Is more there were more things than just the one thing.

Yeah, but that was like one of the that was one of the biggest aspects. That was why we pulled her out was the Halloween experience and just what was going on and trying to opt out of it. And, and I think that, you know, what dawned on me, though, is that most parents just go along to get along. Yeah.

And on this topic, you almost have to if you’re putting yourself in mainstream situations, right?

I mean, if you think about school.

But you’re putting yourself into pressure points.

Yes. For sure. Yeah. I mean, even churches, if you think about the majority of churches today hosting what they call harvest parties or trunk or treats or different things like that, um, they are also, you know, and I get it, I understand from an outreach perspective, lots of people from the neighborhood come to the church, and it’s sometimes their first introduction to the church. I get that they’re trying to offer a place that’s safe, because guess what? It isn’t actually safe out there in the real world anymore. Yeah, I just said that, like alone, the fentanyl drugs that have come across the border over the years that are killing tons of Americans.

Since you’re on that just real quick, there is a lot of evidence that China is purposely funneling fentanyl through the Mexican border, and it’s coming in in droves for the purpose of hurting our country, specifically.

Kids.

Specifically kids. And it’s even being designed in certain ways that kids might like and looking like candy. And then you have to think about gateways for terror. Terrorism called terrorism would be to, you know, infuse this. I mean.

I, I’m not a fear based parent, but I, I’m just going to say something that just came to me the minute you said terrorist activity. We are in October. This is an election year. There’s all kinds of crazy things happening right now. Halloween is literally happening four days before the election. Okay? Four days before the election. And so that kind of puts a different spin on things in regards to the terrorist attack. Potential terrorist attacks. Right. Like they’re there. The enemy is clever. He’s a schemer. I personally won’t have my kids anywhere near anyone else’s candy because they have found ways to make the fentanyl look like candy. So.

So anyways, you know, that could be just a unique opportunity to do something terrible. So I think it’s important to be sober minded about it. It’s super important. And to be thinking about that, you know, we have to do hard things as parents. That’s why you listen to courageous parenting. We’re always talking about, you know, what we feel is most important to talk about in a given time based on what’s going on in biblical truth. And this is super, super important. It’s not just the desensitization, it’s the safety of your children. And we’re living in unprecedented times. I don’t care what anybody else says. Some other Christian out there saying, these are not unprecedented times. I completely disagree. There’s a whole podcast episode on that. We are living in different times than previous generations of parents, so we have to parent more intentionally and differently.

I mean, the same evil has always existed. There’s the same source, which is Satan, right? Um, and and sinful nature in humanity. But there’s the technology has just changed the game drastically. And so just being aware as parents, I know that there just feels like today there’s so many things to try to be aware of. And you do have to pick your battles. And so, you know, it’s it’s okay as a parent to go, wow, I’m like maxed out on my battles. We’re just not going to do this this year, right? Um, and I just want to share a Scripture verse that actually is a call for us to be sober minded. It’s in Galatians chapter six, verse six through nine. It says, let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up that aspect of like picking your battles like it’s a weary job to be a parent and we cannot give up. We need to hold the line when it comes to choosing what we are going to be teaching our kids. Our actions actually speak way louder than our words do. And so if we are participating in things and we’re okay with celebrating pagan holidays, for example, that is actually something we are teaching our children. We’re either teaching them to be okay with it, or we’re teaching them not to be okay with it. There’s no in between.

Here’s the tide against you and me. In 2023, $12.2 billion was spent on Halloween, $3.6 billion on candy, $3.9 billion on decorations, 2 billion on adult costumes, adult costumes, uh, more was spent on than children’s costumes, which was at 1.4 billion. Which brings up the point why are so many adults dressing up? Well, they do, because a lot of companies do work parties. So there’s a lot of events and things like that where adults go to. And unfortunately, it gives kind of an excuse on that day for all kinds of inappropriate dressing, frankly. Yeah. And and true debauchery. And we just need to lead by example. I think that’s so important. So if we have a conviction about what our children should do, we should do the same thing. If you don’t, hey, it’s okay. We can still love each other. You don’t have to agree with everything we say. We can still love each other as Christians. Um, we’re going to love anybody that disagrees with us on these, you know, extra things. No big.

Deal. Not salvation issues. But I do think that as we’re raising our kids, Jesus is not something that we get to choose to compartmentalize when we’re saved. When we’re a Christian, we surrender all to the Lord. And that’s every aspect of our lives, right? Even where we work goes under the heading of Lord, is this your will for my life? Literally everything we do as Christians should go under that question of God. Am I walking in your will? God? Am I leading my children the way you want me to lead your children? Because they’re actually yours? They’re not mine. And so taking on that, like that really contrite heart and in humility and understanding like this is a big deal. Yeah, parenting is a big deal. And it’s hard sometimes, but just shying away from the hard topics and not wanting to dig into them is not what we as Christians are supposed to do. We’re supposed to rise up, dig in, read Scripture, pray fast, be in alignment with our spouse, and then hold the line, whatever that line is for us. Right? And I think that for us over the years, we’ve we’ve learned a lot. We’ve we’ve tried a lot of things. I mean, years ago, I remember reading this book by focus on the family. It was called Redeeming Halloween, and that was the first thing that I could find. That was like pointing out that a lot of evil happens on that night.

And what are some ways that you can ensure safety? And I was like, okay, that’s that’s a good thing, right? I get that safety is important, physical safety. But today we’re talking about spiritual safety. Like we’re not to play with evil or or tempt our children to play with evil, right. Which I just want to share something with you guys because, um, we have a few different blog posts that we have written over the years. One is called engaging but Not Encouraging Halloween. That’s a really important one. It has a lot of scripture in it. I just want to share that with you guys briefly in here. It talks about actually what the Church of Satan says about this specific day. And what’s important for us to understand is that there is a Church of Satan This is celebrated as it is a pagan holiday. It just is. But does that mean that it’s a bad day? No. I think that from a Christian’s perspective, when we understand who the creator is and who God is, we can actually have joy in the Lord. On October 31st, because it’s the day the Lord has made. Satan does not have any ability to create a day any more than he has any ability to create a pumpkin. Guess what? Pumpkins are God’s. God created pumpkins and so pumpkins are not evil. Right? And so understanding that there are these neutral things that God has created, but it’s up to us as Christians to reclaim them when they’ve been tried to be stolen by the enemy.

We as Christians rise up and we reclaim them in the name of the Lord. So guess what I grow pumpkins. Yes, I do, and I love pumpkin bread. And we eat pumpkin seeds and and we, we do this thing called the pumpkin gospel, which I wrote many years ago when I was a youth pastor and Sunday school teacher and I did this object lesson. Gosh, that was so long ago. It was before our oldest was born, 25 years ago. And then I shared it with you guys in 2008. Since 2008, it has been on my blog and you guys can get that for free. It’s called the Free Pumpkin Gospel and it teaches your kids about their sin that’s in them. While you’re carving out a pumpkin, and you’re teaching them about how God puts his light in them. It’s so good. It’s just such a really beautiful purpose. But you guys, I just want to share, though, that when it comes to Halloween, it’s not like you have like October 31st. You don’t need to hide in your house with the lights off, pretending you’re not there so that other people don’t come knock on the door fearful. That’s not what this episode is about. We don’t hide from evil. We hold the line and we stand firm and we be a light, right?

So let’s make sure we get to kind of some recommendations on that. But first I want to kind of be on the opposite side of things here. Steve and I.

Realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our children.

But Angie and.

Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world.

It has given me a vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents who are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart.

We now have a game plan to how we want to raise our children. We have so many answers to the questions that have been in our mind.

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in Scripture this is, do.

Your legacy a favor and your self a favor and just do it.

One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year, and I could not recommend it more.

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I’m going to come against Angie on some of these points, right? As a Christian that maybe disagrees with her, I don’t disagree with her, but I just want to do that. I think it’ll be helpful. First, I just want to mention that we changed the name of the Parenting Mentor program to the Courageous Parenting Program. It’s still in the same place. Courageous Parenting.com. If you have a marriage that’s not in alignment about these things, not just Halloween, but what they’re exposed to and being more intentional as parents and being in alignment, making these decisions and discipling and being biblical and having hard conversations when they’re needed and when to have them, and how to disciple your kids and how to do discipline and consistent follow through all of those things. That’s the courageous parenting program at Courageous Parenting.com. And there’s great news, by the way. This is the first time it’s ever been this way. You can start whenever you want. Now, we used to control when you start now, you can buy it and start and have it forever. And so anyways, you can check that out. But hey. So Ange, yes, you know this thing about, you know, not letting kids dress up in costumes and do the candy and go to the events and things like that. It just being the, the, the, the negative viewpoint for a second.

You can call it what it is that people call it the devil’s advocate. It’s actually interesting because it’s a satanic holiday.

All right. It’s just so legalistic.

To not do these things. Yeah.

Don’t be legalistic.

Well, what about it makes it legalistic. What about opting out? That would be my response. Like what is legalism? Legalism is actually doing things to work your way to heaven. I’m choosing to not participate in something evil because I don’t have a clear conscience about that. So what about that is actually legalistic?

Yeah, that’s a good point.

It’s a good point. I think that, you know, it’s important that we also, when it comes to opting out of things, understanding the the foundation of where that even started to happen. It’s important. And one of the blog posts that I mentioned earlier, there’s a there’s a little quote from an interview with an occult convert who was part of the Church of Satan. I’m just going to I’m going to share with you guys for a second, because this is from their website. It says, this is what the Church of Satan says. We see this holiday as a night when the mundane folk okay, when the mundane folk, so mundane folk try to reach down inside and touch the darkness, which for Satanists is a daily mode of existence, which you mentioned Satanists. It’s a daily mode of existence for them, right? But the mundane folk try to reach down into the darkness, particularly in the United States. Halloween is a time for celebrating monster films, wearing costumes of macro nature, evoking the thrill of fun fear. Okay, children of all ages can indulge their fantasies by donning costumes that allow for intense role playing and the release of their demonic cores, quote unquote. The parts of their personalities that are often hidden from their friends, coworkers, and families. This is a quote from the Church of Satan.

Are you the mundane folk? Do you do you like that title? Do you want to be called the Mundane Folk? I’m not mundane folk, but.

I hope you’re. The thing is that they’re literally saying, this is a time where people can reach down and grab into their darkness and practice their demonic, dark self. That is not something that we even are supposed to play with.

Let’s not roleplay that, okay? Okay, I have another one for you. I’m gonna be the devil’s advocate. Okay, okay. Yes, you call it. Um, can’t we just dress up? I mean, we could do it, you know, at at church, or we could do it at different places that are safe. It’s just so fun. It is so.

Fun. I mean, I have kids that are dressing up in superhero costumes, which, by the way, we got on discount after Halloween because that’s the best time to get the cool. Um, you can get them like 75% off all the things that they don’t sell, which is fun for kids, like during the regular time of the year. Right? To play dress up. However, I will say that this is important that we understand something. A kid’s play is practice for life. A kid’s play is practice for life. I want you to say that a few times. A kid’s play is practice for life. So if we are letting them play evil, dark, sinister things, what are they practicing? Role playing. And should we be shocked when they are lacking character? Or are mean, or are a bully? Or are. I mean, I don’t even want to get into all the worst things that we’re seeing happening with kids today.

What if they dress up as Captain America?

I understand that, and that can that can be a fun quote unquote thing. That’s where you’re coming from, right? Oh, it’s just fun. And they don’t. What if they don’t wear those scary costumes and that sort of thing? And I get that. So let me let me just share with you. Did you know that October 31st is actually Reformation Day? We mentioned this at the very beginning of the podcast. We talk about it a lot in our other previous podcast episodes that I mentioned to you already. And if you want to be that parent, that’s like, you know what? I’m going to I’m going to reclaim this day. We are I’m going to use this as an opportunity to teach my kids about darkness, but also host something that’s fun so my kids don’t feel like they’re, um, missing out on having fun. We can have fun and celebrate something totally different that’s actually worth celebrating. Reformation day was one of the most significant days in all of modern Christendom because it began the Reformation. So what would they dress up as? They could dress up as monks. They could dress up as. As priests. They could. I mean, you could dress up. You could have a Reformation Day party because October 31st is Reformation Day. Um, you could even have them dress up as other reformers that have happened since then, since those days when they reform things like John Calvin, John Wesley, those guys, we don’t celebrate the actual day that they made reformations. Yeah, but Reformation Day.

That doesn’t sound like fun for a kid to dress up as.

Well, it’s all about. Who are we teaching our kids about? Do your kids even know what those who those guys are. Or do they only know who Captain America is? Because there’s toys everywhere and consumerism that is puffing him, this fake person up to be somebody that they think is real, when in reality we have some really amazing modern day heroes that would be better to have as heroes in our kids minds that they would look up to, that were real people in real life that made massive, significant sacrifices for all of us. And it’s why we’re living with the freedoms that we have today. I mean, I just get super passionate about that idea is that your kids need to know who those people are, and they should be heroes of theirs. But that’s just my personal opinion.

I just don’t want my kids to feel left out. I mean, you know, it’s I don’t want to be those boring parents. I don’t want the kids to look back and go, wow, I didn’t get to participate in all the fun things. And, you know, I don’t want to lose my kids hearts either, because I don’t let them do the fun things. I want to be the fun dad. You want to.

Be the fun dad, the bestie, the bestie dad.

I’m being the devil’s advocate here. Not my.

Real self. No, I yeah, not your real self. I think that, you know, in reality, if you are, if you have a good, healthy relationship with your kids, you’re going to have times where you’re having lots of fun, you’re going to work hard, play hard, you’re going to be teaching them things. You’re going to be having really fun moments with your children, doing fun things. You don’t have to have Halloween be a core memory that your kids have. They can have many other good, fun memories to help build your relationships with them. But I know that for us, we use this as an opportunity to teach our kids about evil, to teach them why in the Bible we are choosing not to participate, right? We’re going to engage it because we’re not going to be fearful Christians. So what does that mean to engage it but not participate in it in a way. Right. Well, you know what Jesus said in his word that there’s this scripture they call it ask, seek, knock. And we have an entire blog post on it where you’re diving into Matthew and you’re looking at the Scripture and you’re reading it with your kids, and you’re talking to them about the importance of when people come and knock on our door. Are we going to actually answer the door like Jesus would? Jesus would answer the door, right? And so we choose to go above and beyond.

We’ve had big candy bars with Bible verses, scriptures that we put on the candy bars because it’s an opportunity. Most people don’t ever come to your door to just say hi, right? And so if somebody’s coming to your door, why wouldn’t you use that as an opportunity to give them a tract? But obviously if you give them a just a tract, they’re going to be like, oh, that’s lame. They’re not necessarily saved, right. Like you’re you want to be giving them something they came for, which is a piece of candy, but then also give them something that shares with them eternal life. Right. And In truth. And so you can be a part of that and be a light and be the salt without having to be participating in it yourself. Right. And I think that finding that line for your family is important on what you teach your kids. And so this was just something that over the years, Isaac and I just grew more and more a deeper conviction on what we were doing. And I think you grow more confident, too. Can I just say, I think a lot of times Christians have a hard time with saying no to the culture.

But Angie, I mean, I celebrated Halloween when I was younger and I turned out okay.

Oh my goodness, you did not just say that this is.

Are you saying I didn’t turn out okay? Yeah.

You didn’t turn out okay. No kidding. No. Okay. This saying we hear all the time in regards to people putting their kids in public school in regards to all kinds of things. Okay, why don’t we just praise the Lord for where you’re at right now and make a declarative sentence that is proclaiming God’s glory, that praise the Lord, that the Holy Spirit saved you from a whole lot of things that were meant for you. Praise the Lord that you had God’s protection over your life. Praise the Lord that you knew who he was. Praise the Lord that you know who he is now, right? Like, but we don’t know what is in store for our kids future. So we have to parent in the here and the now with our eyes open, rose tinted glasses off, not thinking that the world is the same way today. That it was when we grew up as kids. I’m sorry. I was riding my bike until like it was pitch black at night and was gone for hours upon hours in the summer months. I would never allow my kids to do that today. That is dangerous. That’s just not safe. That’s not wise. Parenting. In today’s day and age, with all of the sex trafficking and all of the things that are happening in the world today. And so as parents, you have to be realistic and aware of what’s going on, knowing who the safe people are in your neighborhood. Like, I just it’s shocking to me when people live in neighborhoods and they don’t even do, like, a search for, um, sex offenders. Registered sex offenders. Like, that’s a wise thing to know about.

But, Angie, I mean, receipts have contaminants on it. That puts it on my fingers. I mean, they’re spraying stuff on the grocery store. That’s chemicals to make it look better. They are. You know, there’s stuff people believe. There’s stuff in the sky coming down on me that’s being sprayed from airplanes. I can’t even believe.

It’s.

Happening. I can’t even, you know, turn on the news without World War three being coming. I, I mean, I’m trying to educate my kids, but it’s so hard, you know, I don’t know if I have the right curriculum. I’m trying to bake bread, but it takes someone along. I don’t, you know, I’m trying to provide, but it’s hard to to make it happen these days. And you just got to pick your battles. You just can’t do everything. And this is one of those battles that is just too hard because everybody’s doing it.

Just say no. Just don’t do it. Think about this. Think of how much money you’re going to save. Think of all those numbers Isaac put out there for costumes. You don’t have to spend money on costumes you don’t like. I kind of think when there is that long list of things, I just kind of go, wow, no. Like, we are opting out because that’s not something I’m going to choose to invest in. Like, you have to make your choices on what are you going to invest in? And there are so many other good things that you can invest in. And when you look at what it actually represents and what is happening that night, guys, it is an opportunity. We don’t want to miss this opportunity to teach our kids about evil, to pray against the evil. Can I just say pray against the evil? So if I was to like start going into our unprecedented times tip right now, I would say for it. First thing is pray. Yeah. Pray. Pray and ask God to convict your soul on what his will is. That is a scary prayer when you say, Lord Jesus, I want to live my life fully surrendered to you. Would you convict me of any wayward way in me, and help me to make a wise decision on how I should be approaching Halloween? Would you please lead me, Lord? Would you please bring me and my husband into alignment? Pray. Pray for kids safety for all the kids that are out there.

Because I do think that there is a massive danger. Over the years there have been issues with fentanyl looking like candy and kids eating it and dying. That is a truth. The reality is that fentanyl is 550 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Like, you touch it, you’re toast. It’s not okay. And so when you’re out there and you’re with people who are dressed up in costumes, you don’t know who people are because they’re all dressed up like that. Just doesn’t even seem like a wise thing for me. Like, you don’t necessarily know who’s coming, Who’s out there? You know what I mean? And so be wise. Pray and ask for discernment. Um, teach your kids that there there is a need for us to be praying against the demonic forces. Because clearly, when you read and you even have a link in one of the blog post to the Church of Satan and the different activities and sacrifices that they do on that night, which are very real, by the way, they are unapologetically proclaiming what they do. When you go and you look at that, you will literally be like I had for me. I had no idea. And it made me sick to my stomach, like literally wanted to vomit. And when you realize that as a believer, it leads you to your knees in prayer against that and for protection of kids that are out there. And you guys, this is not something that we want to play with.

I remember back in the day, if you would have told people there is a Church of Satan. There wasn’t really evidence on the surface of that meaning that would be like.

Back before there was the internet.

Yeah, it’d be like, oh, come on, whatever. But now they actually are erecting statues and states. They’re actually proclaiming they. Have social media been around forever? They have websites. You know what I mean? This is but I’m just proving a point that these things weren’t front and center back in the day when we’re first raising our kids. And we heard about these things and we actually believed them, that they were real and so forth, because there’s evidence, there’s people that were interviewed and so forth 20 years ago that we heard stories about and so forth. So but so we as parents, maybe even desensitized because there’s so much more out in front now, but it doesn’t make it any less worse. I mean, it’s not a good thing.

I think the ultimately, we need to recognize that, that these are things that we need to engage. We need to hold. Hold the line is not hiding, like rising up and engaging and running towards the battle and being bold and teaching our kids the why behind it. Yeah, when they get older, they’re going to have to make decisions for their kids.

Okay, so what do we do? So what’s what’s running towards it?

Running towards it. Like for us we chose to to have an open door policy in the sense of like if people are going to come, they’re going to get a big candy bar with scripture on it.

Generous candy.

That’s right. But we don’t let our little kids go answer the door, because there could be some scary costumes that then give them night terrors.

And what do you have on the back of them?

The scripture is on it.

Yeah. The kids are preparing. They’re cutting them out.

They’re you know what I think we will probably do this year. We’ll probably on the back side of that, even put the the address of the new church, because people who are going to be coming would be coming locally. We want them to know, like there is a church that is here that you can go to. You’re invited. We invite you to come visit Rooted Bible Church. Yeah. And so that’s an exciting thing that we can do now as well. But I think that, you know, in the past we have done reformation parties. We have done prayer vigils that we’ve hosted that were like a potluck and our kids all got together and the kids were still able to have candy. We had bowls of candy so they were able to have some candy. We did a bonfire and we prayed and we sang worship music, and we declared the name of the Lord Jesus and we had fun. Yeah, they had games outside and all kinds of things, but it was not. It wasn’t Halloween. It was not Halloween party. The focus was to be praying against the enemy and to be praying for God’s name to be known on earth, and recognizing that it was an opportunity to really instill in our kids that there is good and evil. There are too many people in this world that think that sin doesn’t exist and is a lie from the devil. There are too many people that think that evil doesn’t exist. That’s also a lie from the devil. And so when we have opportunities like this, we can’t hide from it. This is the perfect opportunity to teach our kids no, this is evil. We want to be on God’s team. We need to be praying for the lost souls that are participating.

All right. Share this episode. So more people kind of woke up about this, you know? Yeah.

And I think that, you know, if you guys want more resources, make sure you’re on our email list so that we can send you the free pumpkin gospel, the candy scriptures, all the things that we’ve been using for many years.

There’s nothing to fear. No, we only trust God. And there’s nothing to fear in this world. That’s what the Bible says. Don’t fear anything. Trust me. Right. And if we trust God, the more we trust God, the less we’re going to fear. But we do have a responsibility. We have a huge responsibility to parent well, and parenting well goes Buck. You have to buck against the system. Remember, loving people well is never with the absence of truth, right? Truth and love must go together. And so, so often we’re people pleasing, thinking we’re loving, but we’re actually just allowing more of the wrong things to continue.

Mhm. You know I just want to say something to if you’re looking for more scriptures and you want that. Oh man. We have lists of scriptures on the blog post and in the other two podcast episodes that we mentioned to you, which again, it’s episode 266 and season five and podcast episode 39. And there’s a lot of scriptures in both of those in the blog post as well. Um, but you guys, as Christians, we are not supposed to partake in evil. We’re not supposed to support evil, and we need to be aware of that. And so, um, I just would pray that, you know, as you are parenting today, even if you get pushback from family members, use it as an opportunity to just share with them, hey, this is just my personal conviction, and I believe that I’m going to be held accountable for raising my kids. And this is something that we have chosen not to participate in this year. And then you just stand firm. That’s what holding the line is, is stand firm. Standing firm in what? Your personal.

Convictions. I was wearing my stand firm hat the other night, and someone this kind of strong guy comes up to him and he goes, hey, what does stand firm mean? I go stand firm in the faith. And then he just goes, yeah, give me a big hug. We gotta stand firm in the faith. Yeah. Thanks for joining us.

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