~~SIGH~~

David again brought together all the able young men of Israel—thirty thousand. He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.

When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.

2 Samuel 6: 1-7

Have you ever wondered why God struck Uzzah dead. Uzzah was only helping God out by trying to steady the ark of God so it would not fall to the ground. Seems like a helpful thing to me. Besides it is the ark of God, you know. It is not just some ordinary box caring random things.

I know God gave these very specific instructions to Moses and Arron about how to move the ark and who was to carry it. But still...wasn't Uzzah just protecting what was God's?

After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, only then are the Kohathites to come and do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the tent of meeting.

Numbers 4:15

Have you ever wondered about that?

Surly, God was just over reacting a wee bit.

Well,I do not know all of what God was thinking but He was very specific in His command and no matter how good intentioned Uzzah was in feeling he needed to help God out, well he didn't need to. God ,who created the universe and everything in it or parted the Red Sea just by his word, could he not have also been able to keep the ark from falling all by himself? Besides wasn't it King David who put Uzzah in the position he was in because David put his own excitement ahead of revering God's Holiness and following God's specific instructions about the Ark?

Ok, what does that ever have to do with me anyway?!!

Jump way ahead to today.

I was needing to walk to the post office. I took two of the more problematic children with me. Before I left I gave specific instructions to the children staying at home as to what to do and even wrote everything down on paper. I put the oldest 12 year old in charge of four of her siblings. The bigger kids were doing various things like school, delivering their Waseca Shoppers, ect...so they were around just not directly in-charge. No problem, hu?

I get home and heard that a fight had occurred? How could that be, I wonder? My instructions were written with potential mind-fields in mind. My instructions were specific and when followed, there should not have been any fighting.

Well, one girl decided to deviate outside the boundaries of my instructions in the name of "helpfulness". instead of doing the task assigned for her and then going outside to play like I instructed, she thought she would clean up a room. Seems nice and kind ,doesn't it? It does until you look closer. She decided to clean a room where other people were doing tasks I had assigned to them. They needed to mess the room up to accomplish what they needed to finish, which was preparing the Waseca Shoppers for delivery. This "helpful" young lady was being bossy because another child was making a mess where she was trying to clean. A mess I approved of before hand. A mess she was not asked to clean up. A fight with some hitting and slapping followed. Now the sad thing was the other girls sided with the "helpful" girl because she was being "helpful" and they started bulling the girl making the mess.

Now the bullied girl was the one who started the slapping (after she was being bullied) so it would once again seem like a fair call that she would be in bed while the "helpful" girl was patted on the back for enduring such meanness.

In the end, my eldest Elena had to step in and sent the bullied girl into her room just because it would make peace and the "helpful" girl was crying the 'victim song' to Elena because she being hit. Elena did well. It was not her job to figure things out justto separate them until I got home.

All I can say is...

UGH!!!!

See how much this matched the story of Uzzah?

The "helpful" girl was like Uzzah thinking that my instructions did not need to be followed specifically. She did not respect my authority. She though my instructions needed tweaking. She thought (unconsciously) that she was wiser than I was. Umm...you are eight...I am 45....don't see the comparison.

The 12 year old girl (maybe King David in the story?) I put in charge,sadly, did not stick to my instructions and also bullied the other girl. I thought she would handle her position of power a lot better than she did. I thought she would have respected my instructions. I know it is hard with siblings and they are just kids but still...

Sometimes, I am positive I am raising a pack of wolves and not children...

~SIGH~

What did I do?

For effect, I had them take turns carrying the Ark of God (an ironing board with three bins on it) around the yard without touching the bins even if they felt like they was going to tip. I read them this very Bible story and also told them how the story related to the situation that happened while I was gone.

I then sent the "helpful" girl to bed for the night and let the bullied girl play,sentence served. I know she was the one who started hitting first and she could have chosen another way to deal with little miss "helpful" but I needed the girls to know how very important it is to follow my instructions not just when I am around to watch them but when I am not. There will be times for them to make judgement calls but how can they learn that if they lack the understanding of the importance of rules and instructions?

A BIG

~SIGH~

You know the frustrating thing? A few of the girls STILL think I was unfair to the "helpful" girl because she was the "helpful" one and the other girl was the one who was hitting.

~SIGH~

Warmly, A Dragonfrye Mommy