Majority Rules

I have learned a lot having multiple kids at my house this week.  1) They are really good kiddos – 2) you can’t cater to everyone all the time.  The middle children inevitably want the same toy.  As soon as one of the kids starts playing with one thing – they ALL want it.  Even if it is a baby’s toy.  3) kids are very imaginative and 4) the majority rules!!!

Usually at my house I have a 3 year old that speaks very well and an almost 2 year old that is just learning how to speak.  There are fights over toys etc… but the younger one can’t really voice her opinion yet.  Now, with a 9, 8, 6, 3 and 1.5 I have a lot of difference of opinions here.  It is a good learning experience for me. 

One thing that I have learned is that sometimes the majority is great to rule.  Sometimes, you have to do turns and say who gets to do what and sometimes you have to be a dictator and tell them what to do.  They might all tell me that they want to go swimming, but if it is pouring down rain or 9:00 at night– I am going to say that it is a better idea to go to bed at that time.  I am telling them what will be best for them in the long run. 

The Israelites were wandering the desert for years and years and years.  They were hot, sweaty, sandy, stinky, nasty and they were cranky!!!!!  Frankly, I think that sand is comfortable to sleep in since it molds to you, but I doubt that they felt that way.  They continued life though, they had new babies and life was going on.  After wandering the desert for many, many years and loosing their leader, Moses, God decided that the Israelites were ready. 

The desert was all that the new generation knew about.  They had never lived in Egypt as slaves, they had only heard of the miracles that God performed with the red sea and the plagues.  Can you imagine being told by your parents about these amazing things that had happened.  Would you have believed them? 

God chose a new leader after Moses passed on, his name was Joshua.  There is a whole book in the Bible just about this man and his awesome adventures.  All of us have heard the story about Joshua and the battle at Jericho.  My favorite rendition is the Veggie Tales Version “Josh and the Big Wall”.  But honestly, if you think about this really hard.  Jericho is this huge city, surrounded by walls that no one can penetrate.  In the world’s standards they may have one of the strongest cities in the world as far as protection goes. 

The story of this is in Joshua 6.  Put yourself in the shoes of the Israelites.  How crazy did Joshua have to think that you were?!?!?!  You want me to do WHAT?  The command to march around the city for 6 days and then on the 7^th march around 7 times and blow your horns.  I am sure the Isrealites were thinking things like- we are an amazing army, does God not think that we can defeat them?  What is marching going to do?   I highly doubt that everyone was on board for it from the get-go.  I know that I would have been questioning the logic there.

But they followed- in this case the majority did not rule and they followed God and they won the battle.  They didn’t even have to FIGHT the battle, they just had to march and everyone in the city was destroyed.  How cool is that?  They had to step out on faith, even though they didn’t have a clue what was going to officially happen, they had to step out in faith. 

Joshua was leading a nation, a nation that was of God and for God and fortunately, was willing to listen to God.  When we were younger, we followed our parents to do some crazy things, even if we didn’t know where they were taking us, and usually it ended up being a good thing…  If you read my “Its my party and I’ll cry if I want to” post about my dad taking me out to NYC for my birthday when I was 18, I went with him not knowing where I was going and it was awesome. 

I think that as kids, we understand that if an adult says something that we are SUPPOSED to do it.  If an adult tells us to do something – that we NEED to do it for specific reasons.  I think once we become a teenager and get to 18, that all changes- we think that we know best.  Multiple times throughout the Bible Jesus tells us to be like little children- I have posted about that in the past too- I think that we need to be like children and know that even if we have a majority vote, it might not always be right. 

God has given us free will so we can go in the corner and throw a fit if we don’t like what He is telling us to do, or we can do it the first time and save a lot of time and effort.  We can listen to God and let Him lead us, follow Him through the highs and lows in life and surround ourselves with His people and in that way – we know that when we need to ask for direction- our vote will be with His and we will be in the majority and not question Him.  I personally am so grateful for the kids here this week – we are having a lot of fun and it is making me re-evaluate my relationship with God.  Kids rock!