A condition we all experience from time to time is the fear of missing out. Children are often not as easy to get down for a nap when there’s lots of activity because they don’t want to miss anything. They are eager to go on every errand even to the “boring” places because today just might hold some exciting new element. The fear of missing out is often what drives us to explore areas that are forbidden, things that are forbidden or circumstances that are forbidden. Most of the time, when something or someplace is forbidden, it’s for our own good but we frequently just can’t bear the thought that we’re missing something in that forbidden-ness.

God’s commands to us are for our own good. Often, we see them as put upon us because God’s trying to make us miss out on something that would be really good. But the reality is that He forbids us do the things that He knows are not just bad for our lives and bodies, but for our souls. We have a hard time seeing those consequences and the forbidden lures us in time and time again. We sin often and have need to repent and confess our sins before God.

At Halloween, when the forbidden is marketed as particularly fun, use the things you’re already doing to talk about faith with your family:

• Getting a Pumpkin-If you go out to a pumpkin patch or even to those large bins at the store, what process do you use to pick a pumpkin? Is it a certain shape or color? Is it smooth or a little lumpy? Is it the biggest or the weirdest? What is your criteria? Talk about God’s criteria for picking us. He doesn’t care what we look like on the outside, He only cares about what Christ has done for us. We won’t be rejected left in the field or bin after Halloween has come and gone, because of Jesus death and resurrection on our behalf, God promises to come back and get us and bring us to be with Him forever in eternity.
• Jack-o’-lanterns-Cleaning the “guts” out of a pumpkin is a lot like ridding our lives of the “muck” of sin that they are filled with to let Christ’s light shine more brightly in and through us. As you clean out your pumpkin, talk about repenting of our sins. How does turning away from our sins help us shine Christ’s light better? What does it mean to shine Christ’s light like our jack-o’-lanterns shine a light?
• Candy/Trick or Treating-Has anyone ever (recently) delivered a trick instead of a treat? It doesn’t happen all that often anymore. Maybe sometimes a trick with a treat following. But usually trick or treating is all about the treats. As your kids go from house to house to collect their goodies, the walk time can also be great talk time. What is the trick? Why don’t people trick you instead of giving you treats? Does God ever trick us? How do we know? What treats does God give us? Why?
• Wearing Costumes-Sometimes it’s especially fun to wear something we don’t normally wear. To pretend to be something we’re not. When we were baptized, we were given a white robe of righteousness to wear to mark us as redeemed by Jesus’ death and resurrection. You can’t see it, but it covers over us from God’s view. We don’t have to pretend to be righteous in God’s sight, because of Christ we are righteous in God’s sight. What is a “white robe of righteousness”? When do we wear white for church that reminds us of our white robe of righteousness? Why does God see us as wearing this robe that we don’t deserve to wear?

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 charges us to talk about faith as we go about life, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you get up.”

You don’t have to fear missing out on what God has for you, if you follow His ways and continue to point your family to Him!