Yesterday there was a buck in our yard. Not just a scrappy young one, but a good-sized muley that sported a decent set of antlers. My littles looked out and said, “Shoot it, Mom!”
While I appreciate that my 16-month-old and three-year-old know where their meat comes from, I’m still working on getting them to appreciate the fact that usually our meat sources don’t show up literally 20 yards from our freezer (where we can’t actually shoot them). Nope. Usually they’re camouflaged in the brush or in the trees or way on top of a mountain. Usually it takes quite a bit of effort to harvest a deer.
I still have some explaining to do, about hunting laws and how rural deer are rather privileged in a way. But I hope my kiddos’ main take away will be that while sometimes things come easily, most of the time we have to use our God-given abilities to chase them—whether they be deer or dreams.