Preparation Pays Off
Eric Ashcraft, Utica, OH Non-Typical 198 2/8"; Net 188 0/8"!
As I look back on the past several
bow seasons one in particular really stands out in the forefront of my
mind. The 2000 archery seasons
nationwide proved to be one of the best in history, with many great deer and other
big game animals falling to the bow and arrow.
This is not a coincidence, but a testimony to the fact of how practice
and preparation will be rewarded.
We must realize the importance of
practice and preparation in order to ethically harvest any big game animal,
trophy or not. The fact of being
prepared is not only true in big game bow hunting, but to every person,
everywhere. The Bible tells us in I
Thessalonians 5:2 “. . . that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the
night.”(NKJV) Therefore, we must be prepared to meet our Savior, and if we are
not prepared we must do something about that immediately, “for the Lord cometh
at a day and hour that we expect Him not.”
Christ’s return can be related to the way a mature buck can just appear,
often catching us off guard. This raises
a very important question; are we living for God or our own selfish
desires? To be prepared for His coming
we must know and apply His word in our lives daily.
My life verse is Proverbs 3: 5,6
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” (NKJV). I need to be reminded daily that God wants me
to trust Him and not myself—and that goes for all of us. We need to trust God for everything in life,
for the little things and the big things.
Christ has also provided a way for
those who have not trusted Him alone as their Savior. If you don’t know Christ, call upon the name
of the Lord, repent from your sins, and ask Him to be your Savior (Romans 3:23;
6:23; 5:8; 10:9,10). These verses are
referred to as the Romans road and will help you in making your decision to
accept Christ. We all need to be ready
for Christ’s return could be today, don’t put it off.
The Bible is THE place to find
help for our lives. Once we have
accepted Christ, it is essential to start reading His Word. I would suggest buying a Bible you can
understand, the New Living Translation is great for a new believer. Start reading in the book of John or
Philippians in the New Testament. It is
also important to meet with other believers and learn about God’s word, so I
would suggest finding a good Bible-believing church. I trust we’ll all be ready, because Christ
could come at any hour, and He wants us to be prepared when He comes to take us
home!!
Now for the rest of the
story. The 2000 bow season is one that I
will not soon forget. Before I tell you
about the bow season, let me share some of the ways we all can prepare ourselves
for the upcoming seasons. One of the
best ways to be prepared is to start practicing early in the year. In early summer I would get together with
friends or family and practice shooting 3D targets, block targets, etc. During the summer a really enjoyable and
challenging way to practice is bowhunting for groundhogs. A bowhunter who mentored me as a teenager
told me often that if I could kill a groundhog with a bow, that I could kill
anything with a bow, fortunately I have been able to harvest several with a
bow, so I was very confident about the first week of bowseason.