Many years ago, when our children were much younger we made a decision about Halloween. We decided that we would not celebrate the day. In our own minds & heart we could not justify our family celebrating a holiday that was filled with evil and scary things. If our family was committed to the things of God, Halloween didn’t fit into our traditions.
Now, we understood that we couldn’t ignore Halloween. It is there every year. We just knew that as a family we would not celebrate it.
As our kids grew they knew Halloween was there. Their friends went trick or treating and for them, that was fine. We never judged our friends or neighbors for celebrating Halloween. We never told our kids that our Christian friends were not really Christians because they chose to go trick or treating. We just made a different choice than our friends did & often it was hard to stick to, especially when the kids began wanting to go out & get candy. Even though our kids agreed with us on the Halloween aspect, they didn’t always understand what was so wrong about going out to get candy. To them it was just a way to get free candy. Their motive was not the same as others. But as parents, we had to stick to our convictions.
As we looked for other options, we learned about Reformation Day. How is it that I had never heard of this special day in our Christian history? We decided to put our focus on the Reformation rather than Halloween.
Martin Luther is a very important part of our Protestant Church History and I think it is really important that we teach our kids about Luther and others like him who rose above the standard of their day to proclaim the truth about the Gospel. We live in a day where most homes have at least one Bible on their shelf if not more and when going to church is looked at as a drudgery instead of a privilege. We, as a Christian society, have become very good at being religious but not very spiritual. This is what Luther was fighting against.
The Catholic church at his time was very religious, but it was not spiritual. It was full of deceit, selfish ambition, superstition and false doctrine. This was the church that Luther was a part of but when the Lord enlightened him on what was really going on Luther became enraged and searched the Scriptures for himself. The result of that search was the 95 Thesis that he nailed to the Church doors on October 31, 1517.
We use Luther as an example of how God can use us to make a difference. God gave Luther the strength and courage to take a stand against others who were leading others away from the Truth. Luther was reluctant, being fully aware of his depravity and inabilities. But, his strength came from the Lord. What a great example he is for our children!
I encourage you to study the life of Luther and other reformers for yourself and then share what you have learned with your children.
Here is a blog post I wrote a few years ago with several links that may help.
At the Well has some good Reformation Day links also.
If you have teens who like rap music, I recommend this video
Have you seen the Luther movie? We like it & watch it several times a year. I found it on Youtube.
I encourage you to evaluate why you do what you do like Martin Luther did.
Does it bring glory to God?
Does it encourage others to follow Christ?
Be like Martin!
Happy Reformation Day!
