Though the majority of my time is spent at home with my kids, I also work a few hours a week at the preschool at our church. Well, this week the main teacher is gone so I get to step in and fill her shoes. I don't mind. I do basically the same job I do as an aide, but just with a more visible leadership role.
A couple of the other teachers asked me how my day went. I told them this analogy: "You know how in a pack of dogs there is always an alpha dog? Well, our alpha dog isn't here so everyone is battling me for that position."
The kids in our school are super sweet and mostly well-behaved. But let's face it, they're still kids. So, with their teacher gone, they took it upon themselves to tell each other what to do. There seemed to be more bickering than usual today. I heard a lot of, "You're not supposed to do that," and "I don't have to do it that way."
Aren't we the same way with God? When we know he's present, we're on our best behaviors. But as soon as we feel like he's stepped back a bit, we try to take the reigns. We try to take over his position of alpha dog. In order to be the alpha dog however, we have to make everyone else follow us. Sometimes we bark orders to force others to our way of thinking. Other times we do what we think will make the most people happy so we can have lots of followers. But really, wouldn't it be simpler to just follow God and stop trying to take over his role.
With my kiddos today at preschool, I had to remind them who was in charge. As we sat in our circle time I asked the kids, "Who's the teacher?"
They answered, "You are."
I followed up with, "So who is the only one who should be telling others what to do?"
"The teacher."
"That's right. Now tell me this. When you were fighting over the right way to do something, did you have any time to play? Or did you spend all your time arguing?"
"Arguing."
And then, because God has an awesome sense of humor one of the kids piped up, "Miss Naomi, Miss Naomi!"
"Yes ______."
"I have a dog."
I love these kids.
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