BOWTREADER WEEKLY: Good Outdoorsmen 

Good morning Bowtreaders!
You know what time it is... that’s right.

Time to be thankful!

Just look around and you will see the reasons everywhere. There are plenty of things to remind us to be thankful.

As for a report on the going-ons at our store, that fact is immediately clear! Sure, we’ve had the occasional bump in the road, a seldom crossbow that needs to be restrung, and maybe a dry fire or two — but man oh man are those outweighed with great stories! 

A good amount of deer have been on the move this week which means a great amount have been harvested. Pictures of them come in every day and our own guys have been out in the woods to get some of their own!

Obviously, there are significant things to be thankful for when you look around!

Getting a chance to encounter and harvest good animals, is an experience that can make just about anyone give thanks. We love nothing more here.

But what do we have after that?

After the big hunt ends, the shot passes through, and a while passes by? The meat in our freezer goes away — it has a habit of either cramming itself in the back of our fridge or disappearing in the mouths of hungry friends before we can give it much thought. 

The weapons we use are pretty cool, but strip all of that away. Take away the custom strings and the hydro-dipped garmin sight, remove the sharp edges of the broadhead and the weight on the end of the stabilizer, and what do you have out there?
A stand?
A tree? 

God gave us the land with the responsibility to take care of it and the animals to care for and regulate. Of course, now we have top-of-the-line weapons, amazing systems, perfected techniques, and high tech equipment — but don’t get so caught up in the gear that you forget what it’s there for. 

At Bowtreader, we are hunters, fisherman, athletes, and bow treaders — but at the core of all of that, we are outdoorsmen.

And there are a few standards we like to meet before we will accept that name.

Number one is that we take care of our land.

When it is overgrown with needless plants and trees, we burn it (safely). When it gets washed out, we do our best to build it back up. When it is fertile, we plant seeds, and we treat our harvest with thankfulness.

The same with animals. If our pets/farm animals are in pain, we do something about it. We treat them well and take what they have to offer. When they hurt our land or each other, we either move them or take them as our harvest.

Their lives provide something for us so we do our best to take care of them. Like harvests from the ground, the greatest gift we can give in return to the great Designer of the animals we enjoy, is thankfulness.

Our third standard is to enjoy the land. Not just take care of it, but enjoy it.

The great outdoors wasn’t created so we could press our faces in on it from our cozy homes and offices. It was created for us to keep — but also for us to delight in.

Whenever we can get out there, you can find us in the woods, on the lake, or with our family’s on our front porch. In nearly any place you go, there is something to marvel at in creation.

The work to enjoy it is hard, but the return pays back with the product of an immensely more perfect Work — the beauty of God’s creativity. We don’t ask that you try to stop the advancements of factories, roads, and buildings. There is something more simple that can mean more than stopping all of those things at once and it's something that was made possible for every person to do: give thanks.

We do a lot of things at Bowtreader that were made possible by complex advancements in technology innovated by some special people. We are thankful for the people who created the products we use — but there is Someone who deserves credit for the great outdoors that allows us to enjoy these tools. 

He created everything there is with both beauty and functionality.

It was made for us to maintain, but it was also made uniquely functional so that He could take care of us through it, even thousands of years after nature was set in place.

At Bowtreader, there are a lot of things we can claim the title for — and we do.

Pro archery store, bow technicians, outdoor experts, fish whisperers — if there is an outdoor title out there, it has either been claimed by one of our guys or slapped on the products we carry in our store!

But there is one thing we can never earn the title for, and that is the title of Creator, the One who makes all things possible.

Here, we take care of the land and animals because we are thankful He gave them to us. We enjoy it with gratitude because that is what He delights for us to do. We are not the owners — we are stewards of what Someone else has made.

That changes a few things about thankfulness, doesn’t it?

Thankfulness is the most important thing about being a good outdoorsman. If you are thankful for the land, you will take care of the land. If you take care of the land, you’ll likely find yourself thankful that you did!

It's a beautiful creation and the return far outweighs the effort. All it takes is some commitment, a little humility, and a whole lot of gratefulness.

This thanksgiving, whatever is on your table and however many people crowd around it, remember that there is always something to be thankful for. 

It's already there for you — all you have to do is step outside! 

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