Children dealing with Spiritual Warfare

So with Halloween 5 days away, I wanted to write about this topic. It was on my mind yesterday when I saw/heard 2 disturbing things. First, my daughter said that a friend of her's from school was playing "vampire" at school and going around and trying to bite people. In general this little girl is a little disturbed, and I'm only saying that because I know her well. She is 8, her older sister is 10, and she has told me that they have seen the Twilight movies. The older sister has a dark quiet personality, that she's had a lot to deal with. I just can't get over the fact that their parents would be okay with them seeing these movies, when it's obvious to me that it's having a negative affect on their lives. The second thing was that Grace brought home a spelling list to organize 6 different groups of words that were all Halloween related. I'm okay with simple little things, skeleton, mask, scary etc. but some of the words on this list were s*ance, w*rlock, g*oul. Grace asked me what a w*rlock was, and I told her it was an evil magician that is not real. I was a little horrified at this assignment, so I wrote her teacher and asked to opt Grace out of any activity dealing with witches, ghosts,etc and to have an alternative assignment. Yes, she goes to public school, but this has never ever happened before. All 3 of her teachers previously have been either Jewish or Christian, and have never really pushed Halloween activities. Her new school doesn't have Holiday parties, which I've taken an issue with the PTA about. But I was shocked by this assignment, I wanted to throw it away, and tell the teacher she wasn't going to do it.

So this is where I'm coming from on all of this... anytime the kids happen to be in the room with us watching a family friendly tv show, and a horror movie preview comes on, I make them, close their eyes and plug their ears or leave the room. I do the same thing, and always have. Even on the radio with haunted house commercials, scare me to death. seriously. I do this because I have a very sensitive spirit, and it's due to what happened when I was growing up.

So when I was 5, I was at a friends house, and his dad was watching "fright night" the original one. I watched it not once, but twice. I had nightmares for months and months about vampires and werewolves and bodies in trashbags. To this day, I am scared to death of the 2 of the aforementioned things. So then in elementary school when I was about 8 or 9, my dad was watching "carrie", and said I could watch it with him. My mom would always say it wasn't good for me, but my dad vetoed her. I wish she would have fought for my spirit more. So that movie is traumatic no matter what age you are, and especially girls who haven't started their time of the month yet. Then a lot of stuff went on even in my girl scout group with "Christian" leaders. One halloween party in particular, they made fake tombstones for every girl, and mine gave me nightmares for months. It said here lies Megan, who choked on the strings of her pajamas. Awful awful idea. Then they played this game which also scared me to death, the one where they say, she looks sick, she looks pale, she looks dead, and then raise your body up to the sky. Totally messing with the supernatural in not a good way. I was terrified. Luckily my mom had a 6th sense that I was in trouble and came and rescued me from the party without me even calling.

In awana's when I was in 5th grade, we heard a story of a black cat that had been possessed by the spirit of a ouigi board. Once again gave me the worst nightmares and I'm scared to death of black cats as well. I was also told the B*oody Mary story (not at awana's-most likely in girl scouts) developed a fear of mirrors in the dark, which I still have today. Then I went through a phase in middle school watching horror movies on tv, probably when my mom was at work. They would scare me, but I would still be intrigued. When I was 14, we went to Disney World, and went to the Haunted Mansion- I was shaking and crying the whole time because it disturbed me that much. Then HS, saw the Scream movies (became afraid of bathroom stalls for a while), and the I know what you did last summer movies. I never watched a horror movie/scary movie again!

So fast forward to a few years ago, when I read 2 books by the Christian author, Frank Perretti. "This Present Darkness" and "Piercing the Darkness". I highly highly recommend them both to anyone who is interested in learning about the real world of spiritual warfare. It completely opened up my eyes to the daily battles that go on in the world of good and evil. How seemingly innocent things can slowly but surely take over your spirit, until it's too late, and it has a hold on your soul. Scary, but true. In my community bible study, we're studying Acts. Today there was a passage about this man whose name was Simon, and he was a sorceror. One of the verses we had to look up was in:

Deuteronomy 18:10-14

"Let no one be found among you who... practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in w*tchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist who consults with the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.... You must be blameless before the Lord your God."

Obviously I don't know anyone who does these things, but I think it can apply to the tv shows and movies we fill our mind, and eventually our spirit with. Slowly becoming desensitized to the fact that God finds these things evil. Adults all make their own decisions and everyone has different tastes in what they like and don't like. But my biggest issue with all of this, is that as parents, we need to protect our children from these occult influences in the world. It may seem fun and happy, but it can be harmful to their spirit, if they are really sensitive to these things. Grace knows that all these things of Halloween are pretend. But in a sense, the evil is alive and thriving in the world, but she doesn't need to know the intensity of it now, just that God doesn't like those things. So no, I'm not one of those people who doesn't recognize Halloween, but I don't celebrate it either. The kids know the only thing we focus on is dressing up in a fun costume and going out to get candy. That's just my opinion. I've always had an overly sensitive spirit with these types of things, and I really feel like God has given me the spirit of discernment to tell what is good and not good, real and not real. I'm just trying to be the best parent I can be, and protecting my children from potential harm that could be caused to their spirit, by avoiding these scary movies, and anything occult. I wish that my parents could have guarded me from all of that, or taken a stronger stand for me. It's my turn to make a difference in the lives of my children.