By Ta-ning Connai
Gabrielle Union was recently spotted wilin’out, throwing things and dropping bodies left and right! NO, not in real life (that'd be so weird) but in her new movie, Breaking In, which was released over Mother's Day Weekend. Instead of the same old “if you try to hurt me, my dad the ex-cop is gonna postpone his retirement, come after you and your crew, I'm gonna go free, and y’all gonna be dead and oh so sorry" flicks, we are finally presented with an exciting, refreshing storyline that's quite believable too.
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Ajiona Alexus, Gabrielle Union & Seth Carr |
Whether there's danger lurking near us or danger lurking within, we all know a mother that just ain't letting it happen. Growing up, if my mother wasn't spending every waking moment trying to protect me from bad things and bad people, she was spending the same amount of energy trying to save me from my stupid self. My teenage years were the worst times of her life and when she used to ask me if I had lost my bleeping mind, I should've simply said, "YES!”
From getting arrested, to busting a girl in the face so hard that an ambulance had to come (it was a self-defense/retaliation situation!), to having a boyfriend that got killed for messing with a rival gang...yes, I was that bad. And that lenient mentality of "you might as well let 'em get it out their system ‘cause they're gonna do it anyway"...oh no, my mother was not down with all that. She was right there to push my crazy self back on track whether I liked it or not. Sometimes it took talks, whoopings, punishment, restrictions, threats...whatever the mix of tactics she used, they worked...but it took a while.
One day, while looking for her skirt I had borrowed, my mother found a huge stash of stolen clothing hidden in my closet (and I'm still wondering, WHY I would put borrowed and five-finger-discount merchandise in the SAME place? Duh). Next thing I know, she’s throwing those big ol’ black trash bags at me, cursing, crying and yelling for me to pack everything up, ‘cause we’re going for a ride. “A ride?” I'm thinking, “but we don't have a car.” Suddenly, she done dragged me on the bus with the plan to return EVERY single item to EVERY single store, one long ride after the next! Who in the world does this??? My mom does.
At one department store, my mother started sobbing and asked security if they were gonna arrest me. He said, "Arrest her? Lady, we don't even know what to do with these clothes! We've never seen anything like this in our lives!" Then he looks over at me and says, "You have NO IDEA how much your mother loves you and that's why we're gonna let you go home. Please listen to her and be good. And we don't ever want to see you in this office again." And it was pretty much the same thing at every store...I got to see how discipline and mercy worked hand in hand. What a day, what a day.
What started off as the Ride of Humiliation turned out to be one of the most remarkable testimonies of my entire life. Many years later, I went on to have my own clothing company, hired my mother as my CEO and for 10 straight years we straight killed the game selling to over 300 stores globally and nabbing celeb clients like Beyonce, Madonna, Halle and more. Look at God, I used to steal clothes and I ended up designing and selling them! What Satan meant for my harm, God worked out for my good (Genesis 15:20). Now how's that for a turn around?
Me & Mommy New Year's Eve 1990 |
A parent's love is proven by the hard decisions they make that are best for their children. Got kids? Stand your ground. Don't adopt the ways of this world that tell you children are their “own people,” they have the right to "explore" their own paths, that discipline is "cruel and unusual punishment", blah blah blah. They will not be there when your child ends up in jail, the hospital or the morgue, and your tough love may be the very thing to prevent them from going there. Just hang in there like my mom did and your biggest nightmare will one day be your greatest reward! Thank you Mommy!
"Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6
"And we know that all things work together for good for them who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28
See the trailer!
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Do you believe in tough love when necessary?
TA-NING is a former model and clothing designer who got the "call" to leave the fab world of fashion behind. While in Bible College, she discovered her knack for mixing her quirky style of writing with her gift to teach. TA-NING'S TELL IT TUESDAY is a weekly column (originally launched on Facebook) that uses doses of pop culture to present Christianity in a lively way. Ta-ning resides in Santa Monica (by way of Brooklyn), is obsessed with dogs, and is an old school Hip-Hop junkie
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