Oh Joy! I am being very purposeful in my avoidance of Halloween this year, skipping right over it as if it doesn’t exist and heading straight to Thanksgiving. (I even have a “thanksgiving” table set up in the church.) Each time I walk past a home decorated for Halloween I have been praising aloud for something God has done for me; doing the same thing in the stores (but with a little less volume). I really thought I had it covered.
Thursday morning when I awoke, I peeked out my living room window. It was still dark outside at 5 AM, but what should I see but that my neighbor across the street, directly across the street, decorated their home for Halloween. There are ghostly figures dangling from their tree along with other such “treats” scattered about. Oh Joy!
One of my favorite pastimes is to open my front curtains and my front door and allow the fall and winter sun to come through the large window and glass storm door to warm the house. Now when I do that, my first vision is my neighbor’s newly decorated “Halloween” house.
The devil thinks he’s so smart, doesn’t he? He’s put his ugly nose right in my face. What he doesn’t realize is that now I don’t even have to leave my house and walk around the neighborhood to be reminded to praise God for all the good He’s done for me. I just need to sit in my chair, lift my head to look out the window and right there is my reminder to praise God’s goodness and light and love and life and beauty.
“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-the fruit of lips that confess his name.” [Hebrews 13:15]
