Wednesday, November 12, 2014

PERSEVERANCE

I think we would all agree that today’s society is one of instant gratification.  Living in this time of instant gratification I wonder if we have forgotten the understanding of perseverance.  The 2014 muzzleloading season was a great hunting season for me.  I was blessed with a small buck and a doe.  The buck was that of instant gratification.  I had not been in my blind over an hour when he appeared.  I took the shot and he dropped no more than 20 yards from where I shot him.  The doe was my personal lesson in perseverance.  I had been in my blind for a little over four hours and it was nearing sunset.  I was just about to pack up my gear when I saw the doe appear.  I watched her for a short time before she was in range.  I took the shot and saw her dart out of the clearing toward the woods.  I knew she was going to have to be tracked in the dark and this would be my first experience at tracking.  I text my husband and let him know I was going to need his help.  With coats on and flashlights in hand, we started the tracking adventure.  It is amazing how much different the woods look at night and it is very easy to lose your sense of direction, so we used trail tape to mark the blood trail.  We would track for a while and then lose the trail.  My husband was encouraging and told me we had to keep looking.  It was getting late, cold and past dinner time.  We lost the blood trail at least four different times and each time I would take a deep breath, sigh and think we had lost the deer.  Again , my husband was patiently encouraging and that is when the topic of perseverance came up.  He said that word kept coming to mind and that is when I got the idea for this blog post.  It took us over four hours to find the doe.  Once we found her that was not the end of the adventure as we then had to get her out of the woods.  My husband cut down one of the small trees and we tied her legs to the tree.  Each of us grabbed an end of the tree and started the trek of hauling her out.  It was a good thing we had left the “bread crumbs” of trail tape or I am afraid I would still be out there wandering around tying to find my way back.  That day of hunting in God’s outdoor library was over an eight hour adventure.  It was a great adventure filled with patience, teamwork, encouragement and PERSEVERANCE!


1 Corinthians 9:24  Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  (NIV)

Galatians 6:9  Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. (NIV)

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