The Older Teaching the Younger has its Rewards

The last several days, my family and I have been at Beavers Bend in Broken Bow, OK. We’ve had plenty to eat--all the cargo I brought with us and the best of all -- the trout meal we had last night from our big haul of fish. Beer-batter rainbow trout! One of the great rewards of our labors, rather Larry, Staci and Payton’s lab
Alexia and I are two free spirits: fish a little, take care of the meals, and capture lots of sweet moments in photos. We are fair-weather fisher-girls. The others--rain or shine--are after a haul. Patient, diligent, and unrelenting. There are so many things that inspire me on a trip like this. This time I was so impressed by how Larry was an amazing, tender-hearted image of what Jesus must have been like as he kept instructing the disciples in the way they should go.

We learned our best fishing skills years ago from Papa and he learned them from old fishermen. They were happy to tell their favorite fishing tips--the best spots to fish, what to fish with, (the best bait), how to hold the rod and reel that causes the fish to chase after the lure, and how to fillet and cook the fish. The older taught the younger. Now I’m watching Larry and Payton pass it on.

A single mom had her 13-year-old son here from Dallas, spent the night in their van, and was desperately wanting her son to catch at least one fish. He was rigged up for a bass (big hook and big lure). Larry not only told him how to best catch trout, he hooked his line up exactly the way to make it happen. Small hook and small power bait. Immediately he caught a small trout and then a larger one.

Yesterday, again, Larry was showing a man and his son how to rig up their lines. I saw Payton taking a young boy under his wing and showing him step-by-step what to do and how to do it. I can’t help but think about Jesus and His disciples and teaching them.

The fishing they did wasn’t a sport or a fish for a day fishing excursion. Fishing was what they had been trying to do, what they did for a living. So, when Jesus came walking by the seaside and said to them, follow Me and I will show you how to fish for people, why did they go with Him? The Bible doesn’t tell us but I just wonder......

Had the fishing been so lousy that day for Peter, Andrew, James and John that it was a no-brained to give up fishing and follow a man they had never met before? Maybe on this day their nets kept coming up empty, maybe the net-mending was especially monotonous, maybe the heat and humidity were almost unbearable. Were they looking for a good excuse to change occupations — from fishermen to anything-could-be-better-than- this! Had they heard reports about Jesus and His powerful ways enough to pull them away from their nets, their boat, and follow Him?

Why did Andrew, Peter, John and James follow Jesus that day? Did they have any idea that following Him would mean a radical change in their lives? Maybe they thought “Follow Me” simply meant “You deserve a break today.” Maybe they figured they deserved a holiday and tomorrow be back to fishing again. Surely, they couldn’t have guessed what lie I had for them — the excitement, the fun, the grief, and the joy of it all.

We don’t know why they followed Jesus. But we do know that immediately they left their nets and followed Him. To follow Jesus means that we cannot predict what that decision will lead to. Is Jesus calling you to leave your nets? Sometimes the call to follow Jesus Jesus is as loud and clear as a fire siren. Sometimes, His call is more like a still, small voice.

One thing the Bible makes clear is that the call of Christ is the same One who calls us is the strength, the resources, to follow. Maybe, after all, that was the decisive factor for the four fishermen who left their nets and their boats to follow Jesus. Maybe they sensed at some deep, unconscious level, that this was Someone who could be trusted; Someone who, if he asked much, would give even more.

When the disciples followed Jesus instructions (John 20:6), they caught so many fish that the net could not be brought in. That great catch of fish gave the disciples a foretaste of what God was going to do through them as “fishers of men.”

Just imagine the possibilities of what God could do for us if we will faithfully follow Him! Are you ready to do some fishing? Grab your pole. Get your tackle ready. Set some priority time aside. Follow Jesus to the river and expect a great catch! “Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)

When it Comes to Fishing – Anything Goes

My grocery list in hand, items checked off, coupons pulled and I’m at check-out with a brimming grocery cart. Only two cashiers? Ugh! I patiently wait in line. All those unnerved folks waiting behind me must be thinking: “Great! There’s THAT lady who is going to take FOR-EVER with all those groceries! And to make matters worse – SHE HAS COUPONS!”

I’ve been behind people like me. I try to grin and bear it, but it definitely calls for pulling the fruit of patience out of my Holy Spirit fruit basket! The elderly lady behind me is amused as she watches the total to $200, then $210, then $235!! She exclaims: “I’ve never spent that much on groceries!” I reply “Oh, I don’t either, but this is for a family fishing trip!” Then she sees the cashier’s final total of $175! Oh, yes, this girl coupons. I apologize to the grocery buyers behind me with their meager-filled baskets and thank them for their patience. They smile at me with clenched teeth. The little lady right behind me assures me “I enjoyed watching this show!”

This kind of shopping is not for the faint of heart. It is a quest – a feat of monumental proportions and it takes time. I ease into the entertainment value of imagining my family’s excitement when I pull out some of the goodies. Hostess chocolate cupcakes! Chocolate-covered mini donuts! BBQ potato chips! Essentials! Family favorites we rarely indulge in, but this is our annual fishing trip and anything goes! So as not to cause you, veggie lovers, to implode – the bounty does include fruits and veggies. It takes precision and quality management to get these groceries home, unloaded, sorted and temporarily stored until we load up the cars and head out about 8 am!

This annual fishing trip is a tradition that started with Papa and me when we took the grands to a fishing location each summer. That tradition continues. We have carried on Papa’s love for fishing. We are serious fisher-people. We get to our favorite fishing spot by daybreak. A picture of heaven (at least in a fisherman's eyes) as we arrive at those quiet, calm, peaceful waters. The fish are jumping and saying (in our imagination) "Come get me!” We are fish-whisperers. They'll be greatly disappointed by the breakfast they’ll go after because tomorrow they'll be in our tummies!

I enjoy fishing but “somebody’s gotta’ be the chief cook and bottle washer. I know the rest of the diehard fisher-people would rather fish than eat so I think of myself as sustenance-provider. I love it. I’ll fish in the mornings, but I return to the cabin for my call-of-duty. Hopefully, this crew brings in lots of fish. It’s a staple: Beer-batter trout. Yum!

So what is my encouragement for today as we make our way to Beaver's Bend in Broken Bow, OK? This scripture comes to mind: John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." I totally get it. The enemy of our souls wants our thoughts to be on everything but peace. He wants us all consumed about matters of the world and matters in our little worlds, rather than taking to the words of Christ to heart "I CAME to give you life and have it to the full". My life is full and running over with God's abundance and blessings. That's what I purpose to fix my mind on -- and NOT those things that the enemy purposes to use to steal, kill and destroy my good thoughts and good attitudes!

So, until next time, I’ll finish loading up all the cold rations into the coolers and get over to my kids’ home where they have all the fish tackle, poles, and everything needed for a few days of celebrating my grandson’s 19th birthday and living the abundant life Christ came to live us! I’m not sure what the wifi ability will be in this very remote spot…..so, just in case I have to be off the grid for a few days – be sure to come back on Saturday when I’ll be back home in My Peace Zone!

Life Moves Pretty Fast -- Don't Miss It!

In the words of the great philosopher, Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you'll miss it!" That wisdom is so true, and unless you're my age, or more, you may not give those words a second thought now.....but give it a few years, and believe you me, you'll understand them and you'll be glad you did or you will regret NOT stopping and looking around!

I'm just so thankful I come from a long line of folks who did recognize the importance of living each day as if there were no tomorrow. I remember it being a big deal for my parents to be sure to go see their elderly parents often. I remember them visiting close friends and family, regularly, and them coming to visit us. I remember our big family reunions. Those were "matters of the heart" that are still with me today. We're still living each day to the max!

We just returned from our several days at Beaver's Bend State Park in Broken Bow, OK. We had a glorious few days of early morning fishing (at the crack of dawn), kayaking or other adventures in the afternoon, and more fishing after 6 pm. We hauled in a mother-lode of trout in all the various "fish hole" locations.

My daughter, Staci, is a master angler, with "fish" patience and "fish" intuition. I'm convinced she is a "fish whisperer" because when all lines are in the water, with the same bait on the hook -- you can count on hers being the bait of choice by those hungry trout. I'm also convinced her daddy, in heaven, has much to do with the magnetic draw of fish to her lines as she sits with her dad's fishing pouch in her lap. It touches my heart so much.

Larry says "You ready to go fishing?" She responds "Morning, noon and night!" You know you're a "red neck" when your biological clock is set to the time that fish are feeding. I'm so proud of this girl for so many reasons, but here in the great outdoors, I see her not as the girly, girl on the outside, but the girl that lives out loud with every breath she breathes. She's an adventurer and outdoors-woman to the core, so just the thought of those fish being there for the taking, keeps her on high alert. She has the map identified with the fishing spots -- good, better, best locations, based on our own experience.

Payton and his friend, Matt, are both 18 now, so they enjoyed being on their own and they hauled in a mass of fish, too. I caught a few fish which satisfies my need to fish and Alexia, our artistic, free-spirited girl -- enjoys taking photos, fishing a little, taking the fish from the fishermen and putting them on the stringer. It's all about a time of slowing down from a life that moves pretty fast and we're not missing it.

Like Ferris Bueller said, "If you don't stop and look around, you'll miss life." Life is everywhere -- in little kids, in our loved ones and friends, in our surroundings and in everything that God made. We embraced being in nature -- watching the crane on the water in his stealth mode as he'd target his fish lunch, the birds were chirping, the many deer and fawn that crossed the road, the squirrel that was eating out of our hands, the turtles in a circle on a huge rock in the water, a raccoon eyeing our trash, a beaver and a hawk that were zeroing in for the fish on our stringer, the clear, flowing waters and the enjoyment of each other -- making more memories that will carry on for generations, I'm sure.

That's the stuff that life and God's goodness is made of -- living with a grateful heart in the ups and downs, and enjoying the littlest of things that makes the biggest of things seem so trivial. How awesome it is to "Look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!" Psalm 27:13. So, to put John Wayne's "Daylight's a'wasting" to scripture words, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!"

The Fishing Trip's Grand Finale

If there's a scripture I rely on, live by, practice, use in my blog posts, and appreciate, it's Romans 8:28 "ALL THINGS work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes." It seems to be that scripture.....at the end of the day or at the end of the trial or at the end of a fishing trip that never fails to prove so true.

If you've read my "fishing trip" posts over the last several days, you've read how awesome our first couple of days were, lots of fun and fish. We caught so many fish by 8:30 am on the first day that we were releasing more than usual. I saw a couple fishing and they weren't catching anything, so I took one of those fish over to them and asked if they'd like to have it, and they replied "Oh no! We have a freezer full of rainbow trout that were 2 to 4 pounds each that we caught at Beaver's Bend at Broken Bow, OK." They were delighted to give me so many tips about what to fish with and where at Beaver's Bend. For years, we've come to Lake Tenkiller and the Illinois River at Marval Camp because it was a place Papa and I found and we all enjoyed every year with the kids and grandkids, but this news made me think "Maybe it's time to diversify!" I told Larry and Staci and we agreed that we should go check it out sometime.

The next morning we got up early for another day of fishing but the dam gates had to be open for the next several days to release sufficient water to keep from flooding which meant our trout fishing there had come to an end. We made the best use of our time having fun otherwise, but then we realized, we need an alternative location should this happen again, so yesterday morning, we were packed up and ready to go for yet another adventure. We drove straight to Beaver's Bend. And adventure is what we found.

Along the way, we found such incredible beauty in the Ouachita Mountains -- so it was photo opt time!

Then, as luck would have it -- NOT -- we don't believe in luck -- we believe "as blessings and favor of God would have it", a Beaver's Bend Park Ranger was just sitting at the side of the road so we pulled over and he gave us everything we needed to know about where, when and how! We drove to cabins on the river and checked them out. We went to a State Park restaurant for lunch and met the former owner of the bait and tackle shop -- lived here all her life, that gave us every tip she could on best places to fish -- when and where. We were enjoying eating outside where we found out a bag of water will keep flies away, that squirrels are tame enough to come right up to your table for scraps, and that fried crocodile is delicious. Yes, they have crocodile at Beaver's Bend -- but they've never heard of a single person being harmed by them.

Our adventure even included a trip to a Blue Bell Ice Cream Shop where we found out if you let your kids get rowdy there, they'll be served a shot of coffee and given a free kitten. LOL!

The grand finale of our day was Payton & Alexia singing "What Does the Fox Say?"

We all decided this day just may be rated as the BEST DAY of our mini-fishing vacation. Isn't God so awesome to continue to prove He cares enough about what we care about, that He overloads us with proof that He really does make what would seem to be an upset of plans and a detour from what we thought our agenda should be......FOR GOOD! He really is such a GOOD GOOD FATHER!!! Our God is an awesome God!!!