Thankful for Matthew's Christian School

It's Halloween week. Phillip and I really don't "celebrate" or make a big to-do over Halloween, b/c neither of us like the idea of celebrating the dead with white ghosts, witches, haunted houses, and scary monsters. As a child I was afraid of Halloween thanks to a neighbor who chose to wear a scary mask and scare me so badly I was speechless and threw up at his feet. Still as an adult I don't find humor in scaring children and making them "fear" anything that is related to Halloween celebrations.

I was reminded how thankful I am this morning that my son is in a a Christian preschool. I went to see three children for therapy at a Head Start center in town. They were having a fall festival complete with scary stickers to put on paper and ghostly buckets to use to go trick or treating around the center. One child's teacher even came to get him from speech so he wouldn't miss the opportunity to get candy. The group of children, with the adults, looked like a swarm of bees going from door to door and their little voices like a buzz as they attempted to say "trick to treat". I was completely dumbfounded. I expected the pumpkins and jack o lanterns but this threw me for a loop. I realized I too have been sheltered by having my son attend a Christian preschool where they will be celebrating "Hallelujah Day" instead of Halloween.

Matthw's Bible verse for the week is "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good!" Psalm 135:3. The letter of the week is "P" and on Friday they will all dress up in pajamas, make pancakes for breakfast and pepporoni pizza for lunch! This will follow their field trip to a pumpkin patch on Thursday! So instead of learning about fear, being scared, worrying about monsters in the dark, ghost and our house being haunted this weekend, Matthew will be excited to talk about his pumpkins, can show us what he learned in the kitchen and build his self confidence while doing so and we'll carve a happy jack-o-lantern!

AND, in case you are wondering, Matthew is going to dress up like Iron Man on Saturday and join friends for a friendly trunk or treat, and go back to his church preschool on Sunday night, where the adults will make over all the children on how cute they look in their costumes and give them candy! It will be all about the treats for the sweets:)