(^)
Chapter 4
You’re in Charge
The boys were out in the shed working on the go-cart. Our
daughter went out to call them for dinner.
(^) “You both are to go inside, wash up and get ready for dinner.
Right now!” she announced authoritatively.
(^) “Are the boys coming in?” my wife inquired, when our daughter
had returned to the house alone.
(^) “I called them,” she said, with a look that betrayed her attempt to
pull a power play on the boys.
(^) Why hadn’t the boys come in? Because it was their sister who had
called them and they were not about to obey based on her authority.
(^) She returned to the shed with the same message and added two
powerful words, “Mother said ... ”
(^) Our daughter did not have the authority to order the boys into the
house. The second time she called the boys, she called them as the
agent of their mother. They knew it was time to come.
Confusion about Authority
(^) Our culture does not like authority. It is not just that we don’t like
to be under authority, we don’t like being authorities. One of the
places where this is most clearly seen is in our discomfort with
authority in the home.
(^) We need a biblical understanding of authority. Questions abound.
What is the nature of the parent’s authority over a child? Is it absolute
or relative? Is the authority vested in the parent because of the
relative size difference between parents and young children? Are we
barré
(Barré)
#1