The Follow Thru

I grew up in what one might call tight quarters. There were seven of us living in a scaled down version of a two bedroom apartment, with one bathroom, a kitchenette, and a living room that doubled as the ministry headquarters. As such, discipline was a necessity, especially as my brothers and I grew.

Of all the adults in the house, all three of us feared grandma. It wasn't because she was meaner than the rest, or had a shorter temper. It was because grandma followed thru. Whenever she warned us of impending consequences for a certain continued action if said action was not summarily terminated, the warned of consequences were always forthcoming.

Grandma would not relent, and when she promised something, she was true to her word.

Although grandpa tried to be a disciplinarian in his own right, all three of us knew he didn't have the heart to spank us if it came to it, but because we loved him, and he was grandpa, we tended to obey him more thoroughly than we would grandma and her switch, or wooden spoon.

One either obeys out of love or out of fear, and since there is no love lost between Russia and the United States, love will not be the catalyst that compels the Russian Federation to acquiesce and give up their plans for expansion. Make no mistake, a plan for expansion is exactly what this current foray into Crimea and Ukraine is, and they started with Crimea because the Russians knew they needed the access to the Black Sea that Crimea offers.

This isn't over by a long shot, and the best tool we had to dissuade the Russians has been rendered null and void by the idiotic bluster of men who think themselves more powerful than they really are.

The best tool in our arsenal when it came to dealing with the Russian kind of mindset was the follow thru. If you say you’re going to do something, then do it. If you draw a line in the sand, when your adversary steps across it, don’t just shrug your shoulders and say, ‘oh well, I guess that didn't work’. It only takes one show of weakness, one instance wherein your adversary discovers you have not the stomach to follow thru on your threats for him to understand that all there is is hot air and empty threats.

Words are only words when there is no action forthcoming, and as the old rhyme so aptly reminds us, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.

At this point our weakness is on full display, and this only serves to embolden those who up until now were still weary of the legend of American might. With every misstep, with every failure to act, and with every instance we don’t follow thru on our promises, we further alienate our allies, and embolden our enemies. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.