Life with 4 boys....The Bear About Ate Him!

A guest post by Denise (click on picture to visit her blog!)

Lately my boys have been looking through our photo albums and we came across the pictures from our first trip to the U.P. (Upper Peninsula, MI, for all you non-michiganders out there!)

Our oldest boy was four and our only other boy at the time was one (THAT was a long time ago!) It was our first ‘family vacation’ and we went up to my husband’s family’s eighty acres and cabin. Our oldest was all excited as could be and my husband was more than willing to tell him all the stories of glory from his childhood there.

“See that grove of trees over there, son?”
Our oldest nodded emphatically. “Yup, Daddy, I see it.”
“Your Grandpa shot a bear out there, years ago.”
“Really? Was it big?”
“Pretty big. I wouldn’t want to see it. But don’t worry, that was a long time ago.”
“Oh.”

I was giving my husband the “move to another subject” look and he caught it and he went on to telling him stories of building the cabin and deer hunting and about the beavers that lived down in the pond.

We settled in, I finally got our then baby to sleep when our oldest had to use the outhouse. This cabin we love so dearly has no running water, no electric, no bathroom. It has an outhouse. Our oldest was SO excited that he got to go to the bathroom outside and he was fine on his own, he needed no help and since my husband assured me that he couldn’t fall in, off our little brave boy trotted to the outhouse.

We could see him the whole time; the outhouse is about as far from the cabin as most people’s vehicles are to their front door. And a window gives you a bird’s eye view to the door of the outhouse. Our little guy settled onto the toilet seat and began his business. We waited and waited and waited and waited for him to come out and he never did. He hadn’t left, we could see him there. I finally sent my husband out to check on him and he found our brave boy, crying quietly and scared to death to come out of the outhouse.

“I seen some squirrels and I was watching how fun they are and then I heard some scratching and I knew, Daddy, it was a bear and I knew, Daddy, that it could eat me. So I stayed right here so it wouldn’t get me and I knew you would get me, Daddy.”

The bear was some branches on the roof of the outhouse.

Our brave boy did not go out to the outhouse again alone, and when we were in town, we bought him a cap gun that he even slept with. That bear had about ate him and now no bear would find him unarmed!

It’s one of our favorite cabin stories. I even took a picture of my son sitting in the outhouse.

I was thinking about that and I got to thinking about the great faith that our son had in his Daddy. He had an unfounded fear, it was a molehill turned to a mountain, if you will – that branch turned to hungry grizzly bear – and even still he waited for his Daddy to rescue him because he knew he would.

If only I would always have that much faith in my Heavenly Father. To know when I have turned my molehills to mountains and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my Heavenly Father will protect and carry me through.