“What am I supposed to do without my cell phone?”
That was a line from a movie I saw recently. The dad was trying to talk to his teenage daughter, however she was in her room with the door locked, dancing to music that was blasting through her head phones and she couldn’t hear him knocking. So what did he do? You guessed it… he called her on her cell phone from right out side her room. Of course she heard that and answered right away.
The story proceeded with her dad reading her the riot act – that she was locked up in her room away from the family, dancing provocatively to loud music, and he could not reach her in his own house unless he called her cell phone! To top it off, while in her room he finds a report card that reflected some failing grades. When he asked her about it she told him it was private and he shouldn’t be looking at it. Are you done laughing…? I was hysterical! I mean, is she kidding me?! I was so…happy they did not portray this dad as a helpless bystander. He told her in no uncertain terms that he was in charge and she would comply with respect.
As her punishment he took away her cell phone, to which she replied with a very sarcastic tone; “What am I supposed to do without my cell phone?” Here was the best part, he said; “Do I look like I care, look at me (very serious face) do I look like I care? You’re right, I don’t. No cell phone!” I think I applauded so hard my hands hurt. I am so tired of seeing parents portrayed as wimps afraid to discipline their children for fear it will damage them, or maybe the child won’t like them. Believe me; I do not think it is easy to discipline a child, but we shouldn’t be shocked and unprepared when the time comes to apply it. Like the dad in this movie, we need to correct and discipline our children or they will continue in their way and we will have not done right by them or by the Lord. He wasn’t upset she had a cell phone, he must have paid for it, but he was upset that she abused the privilege and dishonored him. This wasn’t a dad who ran his house like a drill sergeant with no mercy or grace! This was a dad who saw his daughter drifting away from the fold of the family into dangerous areas and in love said NO!
Ephesians 6:4; And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the LORD.
Proverbs 3:12
For whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.
Dina
