10/31/97
Probably the scariest day of the year for more reasons than one. Obviously, watch out for all of the little ghosts, goblins, witches, etc. on the streets tonight as you drive. Don't eat too much candy or sweets that decay your teeth and rot your stomach. (It also puts on too much weight, I know from personal experience). Don't open the door to strangers. (Now isn't that poor advice for tonight?) Practically everyone who comes to the door tonight is a stranger, or at least "strange."
Halloween is both hated and loved by people, depending on who you talk to and for whatever their personal reasons are. Some believe that it is just a day for having fun, dressing up and enjoying a festive occasion. Others believe it to be a day of Satan worship and pure evil. Most are probably just somewhere in the middle, seeing it as a ho hum day, having to spend money buying candy to give away to strangers, or an excuse for costumes, fun, and frolic. Whatever it means to you personally, please have a blessed and safe day, remembering to thank the Good Lord who makes ALL days possible, for having another day in which to be alive and praise Him.
This is also a time to remember that sometimes it is fun to dress up and pretend that we are someone else, in another profession, or to hide behind a mask where we are not recognized as ourselves. But at the end of the day we have to take the masks or costumes off and be ourselves again, whatever that may be. For most of us we are thrilled to take the masks off because it was very uncomfortable being something or someone else. It's hard if you are really living a lie about who or what you are. For some of us, we wish that we could stay in that unrealistic or exaggerated person. Some feel that they can do things behind a mask that they wouldn't normally do as themselves. I've seen this happen before in real life situations. For some people, masks are used to cover up who they really are because they are afraid to let others know who they really are. People can be afraid that if you knew who they really were that you wouldn't love them. Without their self imposed masks they feel naked, bare, cold.
May today be a day that we truly take off our public masks and let others see who we truly are, recognizing ourselves for who God truly meant us to be and becoming all that we can be. The poet Robert Browning said, "My business is not to remake myself, but to make the absolute best of what God made." Art Linkletter has an excellent philosophy for making your best better: Do a little more than you're paid to; Give a little more than you have to; Try a little harder than you want to; Aim a little higher than you think possible; And give a lot of thanks to God for health, family, and friends. I love these sayings. My prayer for you all on this Halloween day is that you allow the real you to show through, because you are all very beautiful and special people! I pray that each of you will find something so worthwhile that you deem it worthy of investing your life within it and that you have a magnificent obsession that will give you reason for living and purpose and direction and life. I pray that we will all reach out to those around us and let them know that they are safe to take their masks off in front of us and be real, because we will love, understand, and accept them for who they really are, without judgment or criticism, being patient, kind, and accepting them for who they really are.
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