Needing A Time Out

As most of you know, I was born in Romania. I could tell you that it is a beautiful, lush, mountainous country, which it is, but while living there as a child it was also a country that encouraged child discipline. Until the age of nine, before our entire family was uprooted and deported, I'd gotten my fair share of spankings, the worst of which was for almost poking my little brother's eye out with a 'wooden sword'. It was actually a stick that I was waving around at pretend adversaries, and he walked right into it, but no one listened to my explanation back then, so why should I expect anyone to listen now?
My mother was the family disciplinarian, unofficially elected by the rest of the adults, with my grandmother acting as her second in command whenever the situation called for it.
Two days after arriving in America, still shell shocked from all the change, I discovered parents couldn't spank you anymore. I found this out by way of another Romanian child, who had been here longer, that lived in the same ghetto we ended up living in. It was up until that time the best news I'd heard in my young life, and smiling I walked into our apartment, sidestepping the suitcases we used as ad hock mattresses, and said to my mother, 'you can't spank me anymore, this is America. The neighbor said I can call the police, and you'll be in big trouble.'
Never mind the fact that I did not speak a word of English, or that we didn't have a telephone, I simply repeated the foolish words, of a foolish neighbor without thought for consequence.
I soon discovered that in fact my mother could spank me, even in America, as she asked to borrow my dad's belt and proceeded to do just that. After a few well placed swats to my bottom, she bent over to look me in the eye, and said, 'go call the police now.'
Of course I didn't, nor did I ever again bring up the topic of her not being able to spank me in America.
No this article is not about child discipline, and how the lack thereof has made it impossible for parents to bring a semblance of order in their homes. It is in fact about our reaction to Iran after their persistent and continual defiance.
I liken the current situation, not to a child, but to a full grown adult who is threatening to come into your home, give you a black eye, set the neighborhood on fire, and the best we can do as a comeback, is 'you need a time out.'
A time out is exactly what new sanctions amount to, as pertains to Iran, sending a child to his room, where he wants to be in the first place, since it's full of video games, DVDS and a plasma screen television.
When will this nation realize that Iran is not afraid of sanctions? They already have the leading nations of the world courting them, hoping to find a spot at the petrol bar. When will we realize that they're just pulling for time, to bring their plans to fruition, like a basketball team who's two points ahead and decides to run out the clock so their victory is secured? One cannot reason with the unreasonable, or attempt to employ logic with the illogical.
If not for the scriptures which tell us that God will blind the eyes of the kings of the world, one would wonder if madness had overtaken them. Every decision, every action, or lack thereof, seems to bring us one step closer to the inevitable conclusion that was foreseen so long ago.
If we've learned one thing from this age of political correctness, it's that time outs don't work. Children don't fear being sent to their rooms, they fear their bottoms feeling as though they have been set on fire.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.