JOYFUL WORDS
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri

Chocolate and Costumes

10/29/2018

1 Comment

 
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.  Philippians 4:23

This week we celebrate the holiday that as a mother, was my least favorite.  Halloween called on two gifts I seemed to get in shorter supply than many moms.  Halloween with kids requires creativity and strength in the face of chocolate temptation…I am woefully lacking in both departments.  One year I remember dressing two little Wohlfert boys in black trash bags with cardboard ears duct taped on a headband; they were bats!  Thank goodness their desire for candy was greater than their interest in costumes because they looked pretty ridiculous.   All the thinking, creating, hauling, buckling and unbuckling was frazzling.  I was often amazed at how many times in a short window of time I could say, “Stop eating candy!”  How crazy was that.  I dressed them up, took them out with big bags to get candy and then told them not to eat it.  Such an odd holiday isn’t it!

Even though I was always happy to turn back into our own driveway at the end of the night, I would sigh as I faced the bowl of candy on the dining room table that wasn’t empty.  I love chocolate so the battle with the candy bowl would begin at the very time of day when I was too tired to slay the sugary, chocolate dragon.  After they collected the candy the next step was to dump out their bags and begin to sift and sort and trade.  After I was finally able to scrape my sugar buzzed little darlings off the ceiling and get them to bed I was faced with the bowl of candy and the three bags to boot.  As a responsible parent, I had to hide it so they didn’t gobble it all up by All Souls Day; that was responsible parenting…right!  I could put it out of the kids sight, but I knew where it was.  The virtue of temperance always seemed to wane around the end of October. Looking back, I’m not sure how hard I prayed to resist that temptation and I’m sure I didn’t pause to think about how I could grow in holiness if I had actually called on God’s grace and conquered the temptation.

The years have passed and now I can think of Halloween in a different way, and as I sit here typing in an airport watching adorable little kids trotting through the airport in their Halloween costumes, I see some similarities between the upcoming holiday and my faith walk.  I wake up every morning and spend the first chunk of my day in prayer but in all truthfulness,  I realize that sometimes I don’t invest much more creative energy in my prayer time than I did in the kids costumes.  Sometimes I just sit there and “get the job done” so I can collect a reward from God; much like the kids and their pursuit of chocolate rewards.  The temptation of all that candy doesn’t just come at Halloween and all temptation isn’t chocolate.  I can shake my fist  and throw a hissy fit or I can bear down and push through it.  In  temptation, no matter what form it takes we can fight it and draw closer to the Father or we can forget to ask for help and deliverance and be steamrolled by it. Option two always leaves me feeling fuzzy, guilty and a little nauseous like a trick-or-treater (or parent) who ate too much candy. 

God often asks us to do a lot and I’m not always a big fan of doing what he asks.  I can be  little “do my own thing-ish” at times, so I laughed when I remembered the negotiations that took place around the kitchen table as the kids sorted and traded  their evening haul.  Truth; I do that with God.  Well God, if I serve you here and do what you ask here then you should be able to give me this or help me with that.  Oh, and how about that candy hiding! I became the master of the goods.  I decided when and how to dole the treats out.  They were motivation for good behavior, prompt chore doing and extra vegetable eating.  I could decide to give extra for things I liked or deny giving it at all if I didn't think they had “earned” it.  Heck, on more occasions than I can count, I actually kept some of their stuff for myself. (sorry kids) I can’t even begin to tell you how magnificently grateful I am that God doesn’t hold his grace and blessings hostage the way I held the 3 little Wohlferts candy hostage.  He is beyond fair, he is beyond generous and he delights in giving more than we could ever deserve or earn.  This year as I admire the creative costumes and hand out chocolate, I’ll be praying that maybe I’ll learn from my Halloween thoughts and maybe you will too.

A Seed To Plant:  Take a minute early this week to say a prayer for parents and children.  May they laugh, be safe and enjoy each other this Halloween.​

Blessings on your day!

1 Comment
Annette
10/29/2018 10:39:08 am

I love Halloween seeing the kids all smiles and dressed up. I never really added God into Halloween. Thank you for bringing that to light for me.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Joyful Words magnet picture

    ​Click on the items below to expand the options available to you to explore the Joyful Words blog.

    Categories

    All
    1 Corinthians
    1 John
    1 Thessalonians
    2 Corinthians
    Acts Of Love
    Advent
    Ageing
    All In
    Amazing
    Anxiety
    Armor Of God
    Asking For Help
    Bad Habits
    Balance
    Baptism
    Be
    Beauty
    Being Gracious
    Blessed Mother Teresa Of Calcutta
    Blessing
    Blessings
    Brokenness
    Carry Our Cross
    Catholic Education
    Change
    Changes
    Cheerfulness
    Children
    Choices
    Christian Belief
    Christmas
    Colossians
    Commitment
    Comparisons
    Compassion
    Consistent
    Content
    Contentment
    Courage
    Crosses
    Crumbs
    Dad
    Daughters Of God
    Delight
    Desire
    Desire God
    Details
    Dicipleship
    Die To Self
    Discipleship
    Dissapointment
    Dying To Self
    Easter
    Ecclesiastes
    Education
    Election
    Encouragement
    Enemy
    Ephesians
    Evangelization
    Exodus
    Expectations
    Faith
    Faithfulness
    Falling Short
    Family
    Fathers Love
    Fear
    Flag
    Footstool
    Forgiveness
    Fresh Start
    Friendship
    Fr. Mike
    Fr. Mike Schmitz
    Galatians
    Generosity
    God In Everyday Things
    God In Scripture
    Gods Beloved
    God's Enough
    God's Forgiveness
    Gods Gifts
    God's Guidance
    God's Love
    Gods Love
    God's Plan
    Gods P Lan
    God's Restoration
    Gods Strength
    God's Timing
    Gods Timing
    Gods Ways
    God's Will
    Gods Will
    Goodness
    Good News
    Grace
    Grandma
    Grandpa
    Gratefulness
    Gratitude
    Greatness
    Gretness
    Grief
    Happiness
    Healing
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hebrews
    He Chose Me
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Thrusday
    Holy Thursday
    Holy Week
    Hope
    Humble
    Humility
    Identity In Christ
    Intimacy
    Isaiah
    James
    Jeremiah
    John
    Joshua
    Joy
    Judgement
    Justice
    Kids
    Kindne
    Kindness
    Labor
    Laughter
    Lent
    Lessons
    Light
    Listening
    Little
    Love
    Lovelies
    Luke
    Mark
    Marriage
    Mary
    Matthew
    Meekness
    Mercy
    Mom
    Mornings
    Mud
    Obedience
    Openness
    Parenting
    Parentng
    Patience
    Peace
    Pentacost
    People
    Perseverance
    Perspeceive
    Perspective
    Philippians
    Pioneers
    Pleasing God
    Poor
    Porch
    Positive
    Possibilities
    Pray
    Prayer
    Priorities
    Promises
    Proverbs
    Psalm
    Relationship
    Religion
    Respect
    Romans
    Sacrifice
    Sacrifices
    Sainthood
    Saints
    Samuel
    Scripture
    Seeking God
    Service
    Serving God
    Signs
    Silence
    Simple
    Sin
    Sinfulness
    Slow Down
    Small Stuff
    Steve Ray
    Stillness
    St. Mary's 4th Of July
    Strength
    Stress
    Suffering
    Surprises
    Surrender
    Temptation
    Thanks
    The Right Thing
    Time
    Troubled Times
    Trust
    Trust In God
    Truth
    Understanding
    Unravelled
    Valentines
    Waiting
    Weddings
    Word Of The Year
    Words
    Works Of Mercy
    Worry


    ​Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012


    Back to Home

    RSS Feed


      HOME                        BLOG                       SPEAKING                        WRITING                        HOSPITALITY                        MEET SHERI  

CONTACT: 989.640.6673
Picture
EMAIL

FACEBOOK

Twitter

Content is the intellectual property of Sheri Wohlfert 2017
Created by dhengesbach
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Writing
  • Hospitality
  • About Sheri