The BIG Day
Do you remember the day you got your hunting license? I do. It was 1993 and I
was 12 years old. I took the Hunters Safety class in a small room at the Modesto Foursquare church, where I grew up. I remember that day so clearly, just like it happened yesterday, because for me it was the beginning of making some of my favorite memories.
Hunting was such a big part of our family that every year we would take our family vacation up to Highland Lake in Alpine County California. This D-6 Zone is where we would deer hunt every year. While the men would go out hunting for the day, my Mom and Grandmother (who had zero interest in hunting) would stay back at camp where they would spend the day reading books, visiting, taking walks, relaxing and preparing supper. As a young boy I had to stay behind with the ladies in camp, which wasn’t a bad thing because there was a lot to do. I got to go hiking and exploring around the lake. I also got to fish and shoot squirrels in the trees with my BB gun. But when I turned twelve and got my hunting license I was invited to go hunting with the men. As a twelve-year-old boy, to be able walk over Highland peak with my dad and grandad with a real gun over my shoulder meant I was one of men. Well, at least that’s how I felt.
Now that I am thirty-six years old and I have a few kids of my own it looks like my hunting heritage is going to continue to get passed down to my kids. My oldest son, who is eleven, just passed the California Hunters Safety course and, like me, this will be a day he will not soon forget. Not long after he received his license I took him on his first pheasant hunt. Nothing can describe this day except pure joy. To be able to share this moment with my son was one of the coolest moments for me as a dad.
I often wonder why it’s so much easier for us to want to share things that we love, like the great outdoors but when it comes to our faith and love for Jesus Christ we don’t jump at every opportunity? The Bible says:
“I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”
(Acts 20:24, NIV)
Not only do I want to share my passion and love for the outdoors with others, but I want to have that same joy in sharing my love for the Lord with other people. As much as I want to pass on my hunting heritage to my children, their faith in Christ has a much higher eternal value. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. "You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. Deuteronomy 6:5-7
I commit that the name of the Lord will be praised in my house and I will teach my children not only to love the outdoors, but also to love the one who created it all. Will you?
Written By, ProStaff Kevin Ratliff
