Sharing Responsibility: Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

This past Saturday we had visitors, who brought a truck-load of gifts for the children. The kids absolutely loved it. We all get a little bogged down by visitors and gifts at Christmas-time, when it’s nearly a daily occurrence. But visitors and presents in September are a special treat!

The only problem is: where are we going to put all these new toys?

On Saturdays, I’m in charge of devotions for the kids. Knowing that we needed to do something with all these new items, but not wanting to be solely responsible for deciding what stays and what goes, I had them read Exodus 18:13-27.

In Exodus 18, Moses is serving as judge over all the people. From sun-up to sun-down, he is listening to their complaints and ruling according to what he thinks is God’s will. His father-in-law, Jethro, tells him that this is no good. He’ll burn out for sure. Who wouldn’t, listening to people complain all the time? Jethro says, “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” He then instructs Moses to appoint judges to help him – delegate, delegate, delegate! Then Moses is only left with the most serious matters to decide. (Hence our current judicial system.)

I explained to the kids that I, too, have lots of decisions to make. For example, what are we going to do with all these toys? And since the Bible says it’s not good for one person to carry the weight of all that responsibility alone, I chose 4 of the kids to serve as judges. The other 15 were tasked with finding old toys they thought we should get rid of. But it would be up to the judges to make the final ruling.

The judges sat on the facing bench, and each of the kids approached them, describing the toy and why they thought it should be donated (“donar”), thrown away (“tirar”), or saved (“guardar”).

We started out pretty simple. Alberto presented half of a plastic horse, and said he thought we should throw it away. The judges were in unanimous agreement. (Later we found the other half, but the judges still ruled to throw the horse away.)

Martha had chosen a large floor puzzle that had just been gifted to us by our visitors that morning. It was a well-used floor puzzle, taken out of the bottom of someone else’s toy box. Martha told the judges it was old and she wanted to give it away. They asked if it had all its pieces. She said yes. The judges talked it over, and even though it wasn’t new, it was new to us, so they decided to keep it, at least for the time being.

Jordan was next. He brought an ambulance before the judges and said that every time the kids play with it they get in trouble and the ambulance ends up on top of the shelf, out of reach. The staff all chimed in that the ambulance was quite loud and annoying. The judges agreed that it would save everyone a lot of trouble if we just got rid of it. So into the donation box it went.

Next, things got a little trickier. Brayan presented a space ship, but when asked why he wanted to get rid of it he said, “Because it’s my brother’s.” The judges deliberated, and decided that it wasn’t right to donate a toy that didn’t belong to you. His brother was relieved.

(Halfway through this exercise, 4-year-old Nidia asked if she could step down from her role as judge. She decided it looked way more fun on the other side of the bench. Responsibility can be heavy!)

Adriana, one of our favorite kids (I know, you’re not supposed to have favorites, but…), brought before the judges an Anna doll from the movie Frozen. When asked why she wanted to donate it, she said, “Because it’s pretty, and some other kid will like it.” (Do you see why she’s our favorite???) The judges went into conference. It was a nice doll. Clean. New. Everyone loves Frozen. But in the end, they agreed with Adriana, that it would be nice to bless another child with this perfectly good toy instead of solely our scraps.

By the end of our half-hour devotional period, we ended up with a large box of donations, a small pile of trash, and still plenty of toys to fill the room. I have to say, some of the items they decided to donate were surprising. Things I would have kept for sure, they easily put into the donation box. And after Adriana was praised for donating something nice, the donation box got fuller and fuller with nicer and nicer things. 

Did the job get done the way I would have done it? No. But did it get done? Yes. Did it lighten my load? Yes. And did we have fun doing it together? Absolutely.

Letting go of control in order to share our work load may not be easy. But it is biblical, it will lighten your load, and it can be fun!