Pumpkin Guts and Letting Your Light Shine

We almost always carve our pumpkins on the Monday night before Halloween, as a FHE activity.  This year was no different.  However, Acadia's is the only pumpkin that was carved.  Rori's was too little, mine was starting to rot already, and Ryan didn't know what he wanted to do, not to mention he was still not sure he wanted to clean out his HUGE pumpkin even if he did have an idea of what to carve. 

***Disclaimer:  Aurora is in a "stripping" phase.  On Monday, she took her pants off twice.  Finally, I just left them off since it was the end of the day and we weren't going anywhere. lol





Rori was fascinated with what Cadi was doing. 


But when we offered to have her help scoop out the guts, she kept saying no.  I wonder why?












And the finished product:


Since it was FHE, we did have a spiritual discussion about carving pumpkins.  (You can find symbolism in anything if you think about it enough. lol)

First we talked about what scooping the pumpkin guts out could represent.  Repentance and removing sin from our lives.  (Good answer.)  Sometimes that process isn't easy or pleasant.  But if your goal is to have a clean pumpkin, you have to go through the yucky process of gutting it. 

Second, we talked about what putting a candle or light in our pumpkin/jaco-o-lantern could represent.  "Let your light so shine."  (Good answer)  We read 3 NE 12:16 and 2 Cor. 4:6.  We talked about how we can't put a light in our jack-o-lantern when it's full of guts; we need to clean it out first.  Then, we looked at all the Halloween candles I had burning around the room.  They were cool and we liked to see them.  When I turned the light off, we noticed how much brighter they seemed, even though the flame hadn't changed at all, just the environment we were in.  We talked about how anyone can benefit from our light, even if they are surrounded by light already.  But when someone is in darkness, they can especially benefit from our light because it can help them see where they should go until they find their way back to the light.