Praying a Hedge Around our Children

As Halloween approaches, Mary Pedersen invites parents to consider how they will pray for their children's protection from all kinds of evil.

“When I was a kid.”

Seriously, when I was a kid, my mom constructed our Halloween costumes from materials from around the house. Our favorite characters for trick or treating included a hobo, football player, cowboy/cowgirl, or angel. Today, retail stores are jam-packed with expensive Halloween costumes of witches, vampires, zombies, and axe killers. Though some people dismiss this as harmless fun, Scripture demands we fill our “minds with whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and gracious” (Philippians 4:8).

In the Gospel of Matthew (21:33), the landowner “planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower.” The landowner, God, has planted the vineyard — our children — and given His tenants, parents/grandparents, the responsibility of bearing the good fruit of Christian disciples. We have a serious responsibility for raising our children in the faith, yet it seems like the world will stop at nothing to seize the harvest from us.

2 children working together to lift a big pumpkin in a pumpkin patch

As a young mom, it angered me when an ad for a horror film would pop up during an otherwise family show — clearly attempting to grasp the innocence of our children. Today, with countless channels and endless social media — at Halloween or any other time of the year — our children are at risk of being exposed to acts of violence, sexual deviance, and aggression, which can have long-lasting effects for them.

When faced by these assaults, a friend taught me to pray a hedge around our children, protecting them from evil. We pray for God’s protective presence and set boundaries for our children based on God’s laws and commandments. We pray for God to place the hedge around our children’s minds, hearts, and bodies — for protection from bullying, violence, hatred, pornography, drugs, greed, and unhealthy relationships.

Christian parents must decide how or if their children will take part in Halloween. Though Halloween has become increasingly violent, it has Christian roots as “a time for Christians to mock the devil by reveling in the triumph of Jesus Christ over evil and death.” Whatever we choose, we pray for God to place a hedge around our children and then fortify it by:

teaching our children of Jesus Christ’s ultimate victory over evil and death
praying with our children to ask their guardian angels for protection
choosing positive costumes of saints and heroes
educating our children on the history of Halloween
celebrating All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day

little girl dressed as an angel and carrying a pumpkin

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We have a serious responsibility for raising our children in the faith, yet it seems like the world will stop at nothing to seize the harvest from us. #catholicmom

Many believe the devil is a Halloween character, but the devil is real and wreaks havoc in our world. Instead of spending money on elaborate Halloween costumes, perhaps we can make our children’s costumes, take sweets to elderly neighbors, and donate to agencies battling the evil of poverty, abortion, human trafficking, and the like.