Welcome to Salam, Real life with Family, Faith, Fun and Following God.



Sunday, October 31, 2010

Trick or treat, victory or defeat?

As Halloween approached, for the first time ever, my daughter had lots of questions about the subject. In the past we always did not like any of the Halloween stuff, we knew that we celebrated light and salvation in Jesus and that death and darkness were not on the menu at all in the shape of Halloween. But this year, the conversation started with all questions about the history behind Halloween as we researched it before and knew all about its background in the past. My daughter question was “why do not we do something fun and still celebrate light and salvation, celebrated the old way it used to be”. In fact it used to be All Hallows Eve which was tied directly to All Saints Day celebrated on November 1 of each year to commemorate the old saints who have past on. These “saints” were heroes and martyrs for the Christian Faith. This was a tricky discussion for me. As a child growing up in Egypt, we never heard about Halloween, and so as a mother I was happy to follow the church line not to celebrate Halloween. However, I was faced with the dilemma this year with my child clearly understands what she wanted to do and not wanting to be following the crowd blindly and equally wanting to have fun while sticking to our values.

Looking at Christmas, there is so much focus on the tree, the gifts and Santa, does that mean that we will ban Christmas? No, but we will keep the message alive and keep the focus back on what really matter, the birth of the king who saved us.

So when it came to Halloween, I agreed to a small party for few friends, with no death, skeletons or any scary things. We did crafts and played games and visited few houses of people we knew –rather than some glorified begging for sweets- and the kids had fun. I painted their faces and had mine done as well and was praying all thorough the night for God’s protection to be on all of them.

I remember that similar discussion surrounded the harry potter books and whether as christian we should read them or not with the links to witchcrafts and magic and so on. I really believe that if you have your “holy spirits eyes on” you can see God in everything. Before my daughter went to bed tonight, she said that she had a great day, we prayed and thanked God that Jesus is the light of the world and that he conquered everything that is dark and evil. I trust that if i make a big deal out of little things without full explanations and complete convections especially when my daughter is approaching her teens very quickly, it is more likely that she will grow resenting her faith. After all as Cliff always says, “why do we let the devil have all the fun”?

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"I am still not sure about God"

This is what my daughter announced as she was settling into bed! At that point we just finished praying and thanking God for the day. She said: "I am still waiting for some scientific evidence to make sure that God created the world". I was surprised by the word "still", as she is only 9 years old and has not been looking for evidence for the existence of God that long! I listened to her as she put all her ideas across and I was really fascinated that no matter how old we are, we are looking for assurance that what we believe deep down is the right thing. She said that the "big bang" doesn't really make sense and that to have come from monkeys was really silly. But she wants to see a sign..a big gesture..then she said.."I have only one thing that I know is true, the bible and it was written by so many different people that it could not have been all made up". I was glad and reassured at this point :) We had some discussion and I love the fact that we can share all the questions, ideas and even the doubts. God is like that with us, he loves us so much and he does not mind when we come to him as his kids and ask all kinds of questions, HE loves us to chat with him more than anything else. As for the time being, I am asking for wisdom, a lot of it and quick!!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Yacoubian Building



This is the trailer for "Yacoubian building" movie, with the biggest budget ever in the history of the Egyptian cinema. It is based on the best selling novel under the same name by Alaa Al Aswany. I watched the movie and it is very brave attempt to address the changes in the Egyptian society. The fiction in this movie is so real that makes it scary to watch knowing the level of corruption, the secretes, the link between religion and politics and the huge gap between the rich and the poor. Great movie and I am surprised that it was released for public viewing in the first place.
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