I am getting ready to take my yearly Alabama hunting trip. It is always my last deer hunt before I take a short break from the woods. I’ve not killed any really big bruiser bucks this year, but a couple of respectable ones. Alabama will hopefully be a nice punctuation on a good season. After my trip, I will come back home, take down my tree stands, and try to centralize all of my equipment. Some of it needs to be replaced. I think my number one priority for next year will be finding the perfect rainproof backpack. After hunting several days in the rain this year, I’ve determined that it is more important that my backpack be waterproof than scent free. Maybe I can find both.

After each hunting season, I like to take an inventory of all my gear as well as look back to see what I might have done different in order to make my hunts more successful. I do want to learn and become better at what I do and without this reflection, I am doomed for the same mistakes next year.

I find as I get older, I take a lot of inventories. It seems that I am always holding up my age against the backdrop of my accomplishments. Many times I don’t like what I see. When this happens, it causes me to make sure I have not strayed from the path God has placed me on. It makes me become more focused and fixed on the things that really matter.

There are other times, however, when I find that I am looking at my accomplishments (or lack thereof) with an incorrect worldview. This incorrect worldview is basically the one that says power, position, and prosperity equals achievement. It says nothing about whether I was a good father or husband or whether I fulfilled the call that God placed on my life. It says nothing about compassion, kindness, or sacrifice. Instead, it is cold, calculated and easily measurable.

Have you taken a good inventory of your life lately? Have you looked at where you are and become discouraged because you feel that you ought to have more or be more? Remember the things that really matter in life will always have to do with relationships – first with God and then with others. If these are right, you will enjoy a power, position, and prosperity that comes from God and that will never be taken away.

Outdoor Truths is written by Gary Miller. He can be reached via e-mail at gary@outdoortruths.org.