Thursday, August 2, 2007

Training A Child

Sometimes simple lessons on life happen in nature and once in a while I'm fortunate to observe them. Yesterday I was tractor mowing a three acre field for a lady northeast of Sandpoint. Her property is in the Selle valley which used to be the farming area of the county. Now it is mostly small acreages with a few farms and horse ranches. There was a harvested hayfield just north of the area I was mowing. I noticed an adult red tail hawk in a cottonwood tree in the fence line and a juvenile hawk about seventy yards away in another tree. I saw the adult hawk launch into the air and it glided without a wing beat over the field ,slowly descending toward the ground. When it was about six feet from the ground it folded it's wings and landed on an unsuspecting mouse. The young hawk immediately flew down and landed about thirty feet away from it's parent. Soon the adult picked up the mouse and flew upward and the youngster also took to the air. The parent flew toward the young hawk and when they were a few feet apart it released the dead mouse which fell to the ground. The young hawk quickly dove down and landed on the mouse. It then ate the poor critter while the parent went back to a nearby tree. Now, the older hawk could have just given the juvenile the mouse on the ground but did not because the youngster needs to learn how to hunt mice and catch them if it is going to survive on it's own. I have observed hawks all my life but had never seen this training lesson before. I thanked God for what I had just seen.

Proverbs 22:6 says Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. God tells us to train our children right and they will grow up and remember their upbringing. Parents and grandparents have a big responsibility to instruct the children in a way pleasing to God.

I am so thankful for the simple life lesson the hawk showed me. I also believe keeping a child close to God's creation and letting them learn life from His creatures is a good way to start.

No comments: