The Great Outdoors
My wife’s father was a big, barrel-chested man of tall stature with a booming voice. He commanded a room, and admittedly, I was regularly intimidated by his presence when Hannah and I first started dating. As time passed, and roots grew deeper in our relationship, his presence in my life grew more significant. The nervousness of unfamiliarity subsided and soon I found myself seeking his advice and counsel on various things, many of which still ring in my ears today.
“Your granddaddy did a lot to teach me what it means to be a man, a husband, and a father,” I told my oldest daughter Bay. At 22, she and I have a much different relationship than we did when she was 12. Then, she lamented my fatherly efforts more times than not. Once, I stopped the car at the end of the driveway and told her she could walk to school. Of course, she didn’t- her mother was kind enough to give her a ride. To say that our relationship was turbulent would be a compliment. But I knew that she was transforming from the little girl who once climbed on me like monkey bars into a teenager who desperately wanted to push me away.
In prayer about losing the influence I held in her life, I realized that God gave a great example in my father-in-law, who long ago taught me the value of the great outdoors as a common denominator. From that came the inspiration for what I call “The 12 Year Old Trip” which is a low-budget, low-tech trip with my 12-year-old. The idea was to isolate her in the wilderness so that I didn’t have to compete with the distractions of everyday life and to bond over common adventure in the great outdoors. Soon after, we loaded up and spent a week paddling and hiking through the Ozark Mountains on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. We laughed, we fussed, we smiled, we grimaced, and we still love to tell stories about that trip.
Proverbs 22:6 encourages us to “train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they shall not depart from it.” And as much as I’d like to think this story is about me training up Bay- it is also about George training up me. My dad, God rest his soul, never took me camping, hiking, or anything much outdoors related. That’s not to disparage him, but rather an acknowledgment that those sorts of things were not who he was. Instead, George trained me in that regard. Not as a child, but as a grown man with the inexperience of a child. “Hey Dad,” Bay sheepishly gestured just a few weeks ago, “Want to go paddle on the Buffalo River after I graduate in May?” George trained me and Bay is not departing from it, either. No truer, too, than in the Word. For George trained me in my Spirit walk, too. I “walked the aisle” and made my profession of faith in my 20s- long after he had taken me under his wing. And still, my daughters are reaping the benefits. Train them up, dads. Train them up, granddads. They need you.
-Walt Merrell
A Christian Outdoorsman who writes of his adventures with his family, with the hope that others might be inspired and encouraged to embrace God’s tapestry, otherwise known as the great outdoors, as a means of finding Common Ground. You can follow him at Shepherding Outdoors on FB, YT and IG and at shepherdingoutdoors.com. His most recent book is available at shepherdingbook.com. Read his faith story at www.BirminghamChristian.com.
