Halloween is SO SCARY

I am afraid my earlier post might be misconstrued, so I have decided to change it to better communicate my thoughts. I felt a little unsettled after I hit "Publish." My attempt to be dry-funny turned out to appear haughty and mocking. Not my intention.
Here are a few of my thoughts about tonight. I am excited about tonight, but I am also a little embarrassed about it. The reason is that I have been far too distant from our neighbors and I only wish that tonight would be more than just a re-introduction to one another. The sad thing is that the Scariest thing to me about tonight is facing our neighbors when I know that I have not been as loving to them as I should have been.

Tonight really is going to be a great night to meet our neighbors- again. We will get to re-introduce ourselves to them and show them that they are always welcome at our house. We are going to open our arms and our hearts wide, gush over the kids, and care for our neighbors. It is, after all, one of the only times that neighbors will come to us! I hope they see Christ in us tonight. It's the perfect opportunity to kind of start over with our neighbors and extend the hand of friendship that has all too often stayed in our pockets as we have walked our neighborhood. Lights will definitely be ON at our house.
And it's really not so scary. The One who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. Jesus said, "Take heart, I have overcome the world!" No amount of darkness can distinguish the smallest flame.
It is strange how on Halloween all the barriers that we set up throughout the year between ourselves and our neighbors seem to come down. I know that Halloween is pretty complicated for parents. I think I am probably too dogmatic about it. I honestly don't think it's a black and white issue. Jess and I have a conviction that one of the most unloving things we could do for our neighbors tonight is to sit in a dark house and turn our back on the people that God has deliberately placed us in the same neighborhood as. We haven't always been good at loving our neighbors, but tonight is a chance to start over. I love our neighbors. I am afraid that they just don't know it yet. That's what is truly scary.