Decorations

Use fall colors: orange, red, yellow and brown. Place cinnamon pinecones or small pumpkins on the tables. For an inexpensive colorful centerpiece cut fall colored tissue paper into 16 x 16-inch squares (approximate). Layer the four colors and place in mason jars, then fill the jar with scented pinecones. Small battery operated tea lights could be placed in the bottom of the jars for added affect.

Family Night Ideas

• Visit a local pumpkin patch and enjoy apple cider and everything pumpkin.
• Have a pumpkin themed fall festival including a time of pumpkin painting (or carving). If possible, bring in a special guest to carve a large pumpkin.

Activities

• To promote good conversations, print table talk cards and place them on the tables. Ask the women to choose one and share.      https://womensministrytoolbox.com/fall-table-talk-cards/
• Pumpkin Bowling—you will need 6-inch pumpkins, child’s plastic bowling pins or paper towel or toilet paper rolls. Each person/team will need a pumpkin and 10 pins. Set up an alley of about 12 feet.         An easy way to keep score is to have a bowl of small wrapped candy available. Everyone who gets a strike gets two pieces, spares gets one. The one with the most candy is declared the winner.
• Pumpkin Spice potpourri – https://www.cleanandscentsible.com/fall-simmering-potpourri-recipes/
• Check this website for a pumpkin craft –  https://www.juliabettencourt.com/blog/diy-bandana-pumpkins/

Refreshment Ideas

• As a group, make two ingredient pumpkin spice muffins. Check the following website for the directions: https://momcrieff.com/pumpkin-muffins-two-ingredients. Place a muffin in a goodie bag, attach a scripture verse and invite the women to give it to a friend who needs a word of encouragement.
• Pumpkin Spice Hot Chocolate (Make at least 3 hours before in a slow cooker) https://www.themagicalslowcooker.com/slow-cooker-pumpkin-spice-hot-chocolate/

Taste and See

Fall is my favorite season with the beautiful colors, special aromas and flavors, especially the famous pumpkin spice. If you are a pumpkin spice lover, savoring all things pumpkin spice seems like a little slice of heaven.

Why has pumpkin spice become so appealing? Let’s look at the origins. Pumpkins are symbolic in American culture. They’re the oldest domesticated plant in the New World. When the crops the colonist brought from Europe failed, pumpkin helped sustain them. As people moved into larger cities, pumpkins remained a welcoming memory of home. But it’s not the pumpkin itself; it’s about the spice, the extra kick. McCormick came out with the pumpkin pie spice in 1934, a unique combination of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. Put them together and we enjoy the infamous pumpkin spice season. The other appealing factor is that this is a seasonal item. Anything that lasts only for a season is savored even more.

As much as pumpkin spice may tantalize our taste buds and warm our hearts, the Word of God is what we must savor the most. Read Psalm 34:1–14. We read in verse 8, “^“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him” (NIV). The Message paraphrase puts it this way, “Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to Him.” This text involves our senses. Taste requires us to take part by taking the first step so we can enjoy and even savor it. Consider 1 Peter 2:2–3 (NLT) “Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.”

Some people crave pumpkin spice so much that they taste multiple pumpkin spice beverages and have their homes filled with the scent of pumpkin spice from the first day of fall. How much more should we desire to “cry out for nourishment” from His Holy Word. When we choose to taste the Word of God regularly, savoring and enjoying it, taking it in as nourishment for our souls, we can clearly see His blessings and goodness. We cling to the realization that He is our source of refuge, our hope. Amidst trials and frustrations of the day, when we read the Word in any season, taste it and enjoy it, we see more of God’s goodness and blessing each day. The difference between savoring pumpkin spice and savoring the Word is that the Word is not for a season; the Word is eternal and never changes.

The pumpkin spice muffins that we made earlier contained two simple two ingredients with easy to follow instructions and a tasty outcome to enjoy. Psalm 34 is a kind of ingredient listing for us “taste and see,” so we can more clearly enjoy the blessings God has given us. All things pumpkin spice will fade away, but not the Word of God and not the joy that comes from fully tasting all the good things He has given us to enjoy daily.

Play either of these songs from YouTube and invite the women to reflect on the goodness of God.

“Holy & Anointed One” by John Barnett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkW_PhFw0zM

“Taste and See” by Brian & Jenn Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULzd85NbWpQ