Childhood memories for me are very similar to more recent ones.  Whether 5 or 35, some of the very best ones seem to have taken place in the woods or on the water.  I thank Dad for that.

The youngest of 5 boys,  I grew up in what has become one of modern society's rarest environments.  My parents were, and still are after 49+ years, married.  They didn't smoke or drink or do drugs.  They both worked.  We prayed together.  We played together.  We stayed together.  Now, let me be perfectly clear lest anyone think that I'm passing judgement or being self-righteous or boastful.  One need not possess all of the above qualities in order to be a good or loving parent, but I'm thankful mine did.  It worked for them.

As for playing together, I understood at an early age that hunting and fishing were much more than self-indulgent pasttimes.  Indeed, they were privileges not to be taken for granted.  If we did what was expected of us, we got to go.  Not getting to go was a punishment that exceeds by light years the time-out chairs I hear about today.  Dad always put an emphasis on stewardship, teaching us to leave things better than we found them.  He also taught us not to waste meat.  "If you kill it, you eat it" (untold hundreds of possums are thankful for that rule!).  The outdoors was, and is, a way of life for our family.  Countless life lessons were learned while hunting, fishing, skinning, shooting, camping, cutting, clearing, planting, and talking with Dad in God's Great Outdoors.

So Dad, on this Father's Day, I want to THANK YOU for introducing me to the blessings of His Creation; for teaching me that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me even more than you ever could; and for living out the lessons you taught me along the way.  You are the truest measure of what a man should be, and you have set an example worthy to follow.  I can think of no earthly reward that would surpass the honor of being called your son.

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