Thursday, October 31, 2013

Acting out of love

Romans 13:10
1 Corinthians 10:23-33
Behold the Candy Corn
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I always intended to celebrate Halloween when I grew up. What kid wouldn't want to dress up and collect LOTS of free candy? (I love candy!) Yet somehow between that intention and actually having my own children it became to me a celebration of something I'm not willing to celebrate. There are a lot of people in our circle of friends who will be handing out candy tonight or taking their children around in costume to other people's houses to collect sweet treasures. People we admire for their faith and the way we see it lived out. People who have made that decision to celebrate today for very good reasons. My husband and I however don't feel comfortable joining in so we find an alternative activity celebrating something we can agree to wholeheartedly.
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Our first consideration in every decision we make should be love. Loving God means also loving our neighbor, so if I do this action, will it communicate love to others? If I make this assumption about someone else's action, is my assumption based in love? Using the example of Halloween (because today is Oct 31), am I communicating love through my celebration: perhaps by building up my relationship with my children, or saying a prayer for certain people who come to my door, helping change the environment of the celebration by dressing up in something fun rather than scary, or strengthening a relationship with another family by trick-or-treating together? Am I communicating love through not celebrating: taking the opportunity to do something else fun as a family, strengthening a relationship with another family by doing it together, intentionally focusing our celebration on something I believe in and support? Finally, regardless of how it may appear at first glance, do I love others who have made the opposite decision in their activities today by assuming they made that decision out of love?

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