Autumn is a beautiful time of year. The trees look amazing with all their shades of oranges, reds, and yellows, and the weather feels wonderful. There’s a refreshing crisp, clean feel in the air.
Many people celebrate Halloween during this time of year and attend Halloween parties, but the Bible is very much against any type of witchcraft, which Halloween is often associated with. Read our October Friends article for more facts about Halloween.
Instead of celebrating the witches, goblins, and gore, why not celebrate the autumn season with a fall costume party? Bob for apples, roast marshmallows and hot dogs over a fire (use hay bales instead of chairs for seating), make caramel corn, and have good, clean autumn fun.
In previous Style Sense articles, we’ve discussed the importance of modesty, and as Christians and soldiers for Christ, we are to set an example and be the shining light for the world (Matt. 5:14). Autumn, and costume parties, are supposed to be fun, so make sure your modest costume reflects that. Use your imagination and be creative. Encourage your friends to dress modestly too. A good way to do that is to pick a theme for your group, such as a fruit basket or pigs in a blanket. If you are hosting the party, you can make the entire night a specific theme, such as influential people in history, favorite Bible characters, favorite (clean) movie characters, favorite candy bars, or anything else clean and fun you can think of.
Cheap and Easy Individual Costumes
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1950s Woman: Wear a tea length black dress with black pumps. Dress it up with pearl earrings, a necklace, and white elbow-length gloves. Use mega hold hairspray to style your hair into that classic 1950’s look. Add bright red lipstick and you’re ready to go!
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Strawberry Shortcake: Wear blue pants and a blue skirt with a pink and white striped shirt. Borrow or
buy a really big hat and tape cut-out strawberries onto it. -
Princess: Wear an old formal or bridesmaid dress and heels and simply add a tiara.
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Gymnast: Buy or borrow a leotard, throw gym pants over it, wear your hair pulled back into a scrunchie, and wear a medal around your neck.
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Pippi Longstocking: Purchase a jumper from a thrift store, then hot glue square fabric remnants to the jumper. Put on a solid t-shirt under the jumper and wear mismatched knee socks. Shape a wire hanger to your head and braid your hair around it to make your braids stand out, then spray it orange with temporary spray die.
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Ballerina: Wear a leotard with a knee-length tutu, ballerina slippers, and pink tights. Put glitter on your face and wear a tiara!
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Bunch of Grapes: Wear black sweats as a base. Find a small remnant of green fabric and cut out leaves as you would with paper dolls. The leaves will come out in a long strand that will wrap around your neck. Then take a brown paper lunch bag and attach it to a party hat with staples. Twist the bag to make the stem. Use purple face paint to make your face a grape. Blow up about 20 purple balloons and attach them to the sweats with safety pins (through the lip of the balloon).
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Raining Cats and Dogs: Sew stuffed dogs and cats onto an umbrella.
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Black-Eyed Pea: Put black make-up around one or both eyes, and hot glue a letter “P” cut from felt to the front of your shirt.
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Cowgirl: Put on jeans or a knee length denim skirt, boots, and a cowboy hat. Bonus if you use yarn and
a marker to make a face on a paper bag and put the bag over the straw part of a broom for a horse. -
Kindergarten girl: Wear jeans or capris with a pink shirt and pigtails. Put on a pink backpack or grab a pink lunch box and you’re ready to go!
Cheap and Easy Group Costumes:
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The Seven Seas: Sew a length of sailing rope to the front of a blue shirt in the form of the letter C. Put on a sailors hat, and enlist six friends to do the same.
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Pigs in a Blanket: Buy pig snouts from a costume store, and have everyone wrap themselves in a blanket.
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Forest: Make costumes out of refrigerator boxes and washer boxes. Tall people can be different sized trees and shorter teens or younger siblings can be bushes. Paint the boxes to look like trees with holes cut out for the eyes. Supplies needed: cardboard boxes (trunk), paint (to paint the trunk and leaves), brown shirts, and crepe paper (leaves).
Have a happy autumn, and feel free to e-mail us with pictures of your costume!
By Alicia Sargent
The first time I saw the sand and the ocean as far as my eyes could see, is when I realized that I saw Him. I stood on the beach with the sand between my toes and the water washing over them and I felt Him. Still to this day, I will never forget how close I feel to God when I am at the ocean. All of us have a place where we feel closest to Him. When I was twenty, I left home for a period of time and moved to the North Carolina coast. Any time I needed to feel close to God, I went to the beach. I usually went late in the evenings when others had gone home. I knew I could pray wherever I was and He would hear me, but feeling Him is what gave me comfort. When I had to leave North Carolina and move back to Kentucky I took one last drive to the beach. Alone, late at night, I sat there with the water rushing around me and cried. I had never felt as close to God as I did when I was on a beach. What was I going to do now?
I moved back home and I immediately missed that closeness. I prayed and prayed. And although that can bring some comfort, for me I needed to feel as though He heard me. One fall day I went for a drive alone. The leaves had changed colors and seeing all the colorful trees on the mountainside simply amazed me. I pulled over and decided to take a walk up an old path. I was half way up the path when I felt Him. I looked down and there were leaves everywhere. The cool autumn air, the birds chirping
What do you look for in a friend? I’m sure most of us would say that humor, kindness, and common interests are among the top characteristics on our list. I’m also sure most of us believe that our friends are good people who want to do what is right. However, when you take a closer look, how many of your friends could be described as genuine, virtuous, and full of integrity?
If we truly want to be virtuous, and to encourage others to do the same, then we should seek out friends who challenge us to be virtuous as well. Does this mean that you need to get rid of all your friends who gossip and watch bad movies? Not necessarily, because you can be an example to them. But it does mean that you should start making an effort not to participate in the gossip and movies with them. I’ve noticed that since I’ve spent time with these upright women, I am much more convicted not to gossip when I’m with my other friends. I also make a conscious decision not to dress in ways that might tempt men. What good is there from tempting someone to sin? “It is better not to … do anything else that will cause your brother to fall” (Romans 14:20–22). These women challenge me to be a better Christian. When developing relationships with women who truly strive to be virtuous, over time, sin becomes less comfortable and much more noticeable. And so, I challenge you to form relationships with girls who will encourage you with their virtuosity.
Most of us want to be virtuous, but many of us struggle with that to some extent. Maybe we don’t know exactly how to be virtuous, or if it’s even worth the effort. 
Boy Book
Is it the buttery smell of popcorn, the fizz of soda, or the girly conversations? I am pretty sure it is all of them, because it’s a MOVIE NIGHT! My pick for a girly movie night is… drumroll… 
As with many moral dilemmas in our society, sex before marriage is becoming more and more acceptable. It seems as though we are bombarded with the issues of sex at a younger and younger age. Unfortunately, that means that as Christians, our choice to abstain from sex until marriage is no longer popular.
I know most of you have heard this a hundred times: if he loves you, he will wait. It took me a long time to believe that. As teenage girls, we feel a lot of pressure from friends and boyfriends to have sex. Sometimes it gets to the point where you believe that if you have sex with him, he will love you. But, I promise you, it is just the opposite. You do not have to prove your love by having sex with him. And if he believes or says that he will love you more after you’ve had sex, he has a wrong and unbiblical idea of love.
It seems as though in our society more and more teenage girls get pregnant. And while I am not saying this should be acceptable, they are many times judged at school by girls who are doing the same thing, but just have not gotten caught. I will never forget the first time I personally knew someone who got pregnant. My best friend found out at the beginning of our senior year that she was pregnant. Many people called her names and judged her because of this. Yet, later in the day you would hear them talking about doing the same act that got her in that situation. Does avoiding pregnancy make having sex okay? NO. The pregnancy is not the sin. The act of pre-marital sex is.
I only hope that my story will help some of you to make better decisions than I made. If you are having sex before marriage, I strongly urge you to reconsider your decision. Just because you have had sex before with someone does not mean you have to continue that aspect of your relationship. On the other hand, if you talk to your 
All my life I have heard different opinions on the morals of dancing and going to dances. I have heard these from Christians and non-Christians, both young and old. I will not lie to you by saying that I think it is always wrong to dance, but I will tell you that I have made the choice not to attend dances. There are many things that contribute to my decision, but the main reason is because I desire so strongly to remain pure that I will not put myself in a position where I may give in to temptation 
The Homecoming dance, which follows a huge football game, was during the beginning of the school year. I had made up my mind not to go, but since my friend had never been to a dance she begged me to come with her. So that night I asked my boyfriend to come with us, and after some convincing, he came too. I rushed home, threw on a dress, and headed straight to the dance.
Most of us want to be truly virtuous, but we struggle with a desire to do sinful things. Why is it so hard to do what’s right when we know exactly what “right” is 
God looks at our hearts 
Proverbs 31:10 “Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies.”
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According to 
At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
When I became a teenager (and was too old to trick-or-treat), my friends still dressed up on Halloween, but they did it to cause trouble. They would go out late at night and toilet paper and egg houses, smash pumpkins, and generally make a mess around town––their reasoning being that since they were too old to get the “treat” they now get to “trick.”
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