VBS & Genesis 2:18

"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone;

I will make him a helper fit for him.'"

I am learning how to be a better wife this week in VBS. Weird, I know. Allow me to explain. I'm in charge of leading a group of 12-14 kindergartners (depending on the day). I also have 2-3 helpers. One of my helpers wasn't good at helping or following my lead to be exact. She wanted to lead. For instance, the first day I put each of us leaders/helpers in charge of keeping up with 3 children each. What I mean is, when we transitioned from the sanctuary to craft to Bible to recreation to snack and then back to the sanctuary, we only needed to keep an eye on 3 kids each. I should mention there are over 1,000 children at VBS this week and whole grades transition at the same time.

Anyway, the second day we were short a helper and had 2 extra kids so I needed to add to our original 3 each to keep up with. This helper (who wanted to lead) thought we should just pick all new groups and proceeded to tell the kids who they were going to go with. Not that big of a deal really, but I didn't want the kids to get confused and wanted to change as little as possible. So I had to nix her idea and reexplain mine. This kind of thing happened a few times the first 2 days and well, too many chiefs...

So I had an opportunity today to trade her for a teen helper. The teen helper was one of 3 teens leading a kindergarten group that did not have an adult and they were pretty much - how do I say it nicely - worthless. The teens were too busy socializing and texting to pay attention to the children. They needed a leader and I needed to get rid of one.

This new 12 year old girl was just the opposite. She initiated no action or help whatsoever. She didn't talk to the kids. She didn't do anything except stand or sit. However, when I asked her to do something, she did it and didn't come up with her own ideas of how it should be done. So in that way it was better.

You ask, "What does this have to do with Genesis 2:18?" Everything! My husband needs a helper not another leader. Of course, when he's not around, I need to take charge of the house and children. Although, ultimately, my "leading" should be fulfilling his wishes for our house and family. But when he is around, he's the "lead dog". See an earlier post if you haven't read this illustration yet. I am to follow his lead and help him out. If he says he wants something done, I don't need to sit around like a bump on a log. I need to figure out how to accomplish it without taking it over and making it mine.

Who knew there would be such good stuff for me to learn this week at VBS.