Light the Night

So, last night, the Stevens family participated in their 3rd annual "Light the Night" at our house....we really struggled for awhile in our married life to figure out how we feel about Halloween and what we want our kids to get out of it. So, after listening to how lots of other people had done it and praying alot, we decided to try this idea of "Light the Night"...

Basically, we set out with the purpose of being the biggest and brightest lights for Jesus that we can on Halloween...all in our own neighborhood with families on our street and kids that go to the same school as our kids. As Dear Hubby puts it, how often do you get the chance to be Jesus for people and they actually come to you? So we set up on our driveway, put up lots of fun lights (this year, Dear Hubby actually put up our Christmas lights on the house, too!), and figure out ways to serve parents and kids who are out and about...we (and when I say we, it was actually 5 families from our church together) served hot chocolate & lemonade & water, we cooked hot dogs on the grill for whoever wanted one, we popped popcorn in a popcorn machine, we made cookies and brownies, we gave out candy...we TALKED to people, we engaged with them, we loved on them a little bit, all in the name of trying to teach our kids about serving people, about being lights, and how God can use every opportunity for his glory - even though Halloween is considered a "dark" holiday, God outshines any darkness. The kids get a pep talk about what we are trying to do and they work so hard, making sure everyone feels welcome...and we let them dress up, too, and join in on the fun, all in the name of Jesus, amen! Ha ha!!!

This year, from what I can determine from the amount of candy and stuff we had left, we served over 175 kids and their parents....and we had so many tell us they remembered us from last year or the year before and how much they looked forward to it. I know in my heart that when God is present in places like this, it can touch people's lives...so that's our prayer, always...God, just let us love on these people like you love them - no conditions, no costs, just openly and with abandonment.