My favorite part of parenting...

My sons were given the choice of a birthday party with their friends or a hunting trip with dear old dad. My oldest son, age nine, chose the birthday party. My youngest son, age six at his next birthday, chose the hunting trip.

We're going to hunt the elusive feral hog. These are wild pigs, sometimes descended from domesticated pigs, sometimes descended from wild boar, sometimes descended from both. They are known as the "poor man's grizzly" because they are tough, smart, very adaptable to many environments and they are the most dangerous big game in the state of Texas. I think my son is almost as excited as I am.

I kind of felt guilty about my own excitement for this upcoming hunting trip... for a minute. Then it dawned on me that a great part of parenting is interacting with your children in all sorts of situations. Parenting is not a classroom or a college lecture. Parenting is on the job training. It will be good for my sons to see how a man treats animals, how a man acts when he's away from his home and his wife, how a man acts when he's with his friends, how a man plans... how a man IS a man. It will be great for them to learn from me that some risks are worth taking, pain is temporary, power over life and death is not casually taken, strength does not come from a gun, a hunt is complete without a kill...

I may turn out to be better at this phase of parenting than I once imagined.

God, please use me to teach my sons the lessons that they should learn. Strengthen me to be the example of your love, your strength, your mercy, your focus, your generosity, your integrity to these young men. Strengthen me to direct them to you.