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Our mission is to take a stand for Christ while hunting from tree stands and enjoying God’s great outdoors. On every adventure, if you look for it, God will teach you something about Himself. That’s what we want to share, a show about awesome hunting and an awesome creator who made it all possible.
Speaker 1 0:00
The following is brought to you by The Stand Outdoors and is sponsored by Steel Pixel Studios, White Tail Heaven Outfitters, Hot Frog Print Media, and Word FM. Dave, welcome back to The Stand Outdoors, the show where faith and the great outdoors come together. I'm Dave Baker, along with the founder of The Stand Outdoors, Mike Hayes, and today Mike and I are talking with the master bow hunter, mr. Tom Nelson.
Speaker 2 0:43
Well, here you are. You know, we met the bow festival in Forksville. I met you and Beth, and my wife was there, Dottie, and that was the first time I actually personally met you, and we talked a lot there, and it was just neat to meet you, because I've been watching the American Archer for what is it almost 30 years now, right?
Speaker 3 1:06
Yep, you're aging me, but yes, 30 years this August.
Speaker 2 1:11
This August, incredible, incredible. So, how did you get.. let's start.. let's go back to the beginning. How did you get into hunting? What got you into. was it a family thing,
Speaker 3 1:22
or you know, growing up in the country, I was always an outdoors guy. I mean, I like, I was fishing when I was just a lad. The river ran right down near our house. I was down there a lot, and when I was about seven or eight, I received a bow for Christmas, and I really gravitated towards that sport of archery and such, and I was really blessed in a way, because we had, and you may remember this, but there, there was an archery store called Anderson Archery, and it was in Grand Ledge, Michigan. It was the world's largest archery distributor at the time, and it was within bike riding distance of where I grew
Speaker 2 2:03
up,
Speaker 3 2:03
so I would ride my bike in there and loiter all the time, mounted polar bear and brown bear in there, and hundreds of bows and a range, and I was just enamored with the store, the sport, and they never booted me out of there, they let me hang out there, and one day when I was, oh gosh, 15, I would guess the owner was walking through, and I thought he stopped, I'm like, "Oh, he's gonna boot me out of here because I'm hanging out in the store. Said, "Hey, you want a job? And I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2 2:35
he might as well put you at work.
Speaker 3 2:37
Yeah, he said, "I need a grunt, and I said, "I'm your man. So that that, that entailed, you know, sweeping the store and vacuuming the showroom, but he quickly figured out that, you know, I knew a lot about the sport, and, and I was bow hunting at the time, I started my first year bow hunting in Michigan, was when I was 14, and I played football and wrestled in high school, but he worked around my sports, and you know, after school job weekends, and then after graduating from high school, I took up the, I went to college, and I worked summers and part time throughout that, and then he hired me full time when it was done with school, and was there at, you know, for 20 almost 20 years, but while I.. I'm making a long story out of this way. Was at the archery shop, the guys from Wolf Creek Productions.. this would be about 1995 ish, or so. They, they came in, and they asked if they could use the store, and I was managing the whole operation by then at Anders Archer.
Speaker 2 3:42
Wow, you went from sweeping the floor.
Speaker 1 3:45
Yeah,
Speaker 2 3:45
that's pretty good.
Speaker 3 3:46
And they asked if they could use our store as a background because they were one of the first production companies working for the outdoor channel when the outdoor channel was in its infancy. They didn't have much programming, and these guys were putting together some shows for them, and they wanted to use again the archery shop as a background because of the full mounted animals, and we had a big stone fireplace in there, perfect, just, and so they'd shoot their, their B rolls right right there at the archery shop. Well, a year or so later, they came and approached me and said, "We want to take you out to lunch, and I'm like, "Okay, you'll repay me, maybe, for using the shot. But they approached me with the idea, they said, "The outdoor channel wants some bow hunting programming, they.. there is none, it's all fishing and gun hunting stuff, and we think you're our guy to do that, and I don't think so. It's, it's, you know, how hard it is, bow hunting by yourself, let alone a PV. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1 4:51
yeah.
Speaker 3 4:52
And I'm like, and I was doing a lot of out of state do-it-yourself hunts at the time, and so I, I said no. Yeah, and it's kind of funny, because a year later things changed, and my wife and I were in the progress of trying to financially figure out how we were going to buy this farm that I really wanted to, not a small farm, but fantastic bow hunting, I was already bow hunting on the place, and and the old guy didn't have any family, and he wanted to sell it, and I was just struggling again to figure out, had a young family. How am I going to do this? You know, already have a mortgage on the house,
Speaker 1 5:30
and
Speaker 3 5:30
lo and behold, I mean, I truly believe God had a hand in this. He came back to me, and they said, 'Hey, you know what? We haven't found anybody. We want to ask you again, would you be interested in doing this, and we talked about it, and I left there and talked to my wife, and I said, here's a way that we could afford the payments to buy this farm and stuff, if you know, as long as this TV show lasts, and so I said yes, and that was the start of it, and I juggle both positions from 97 to 2000 and the year 2000 I, I told the archetype, I said, I can't, I can't do both. The TV show was doing gangbuster numbers, and I knew I could again financially get by just doing it, and so the rest is history. Again, I have to say it again. I was very blessed that this all worked out, and here I am today. Wow,
Speaker 2 6:26
wow, that's great. And you've been involved. I mean, my goodness, I was looking at some of the facts about this man. I mean, you were vice president of Pope and Young for a while, right? The Pope and Young Club, you had, you know, you were elected board of directors of the Hall of Fame, and then you got into the Hall of Fame, right?
Speaker 3 6:48
Well, I was on the board of directors, then I was vice president, now I'm president of
Speaker 2 6:54
President. Okay,
Speaker 3 6:55
yeah. And matter of fact, our induction ceremony and weekend is this coming weekend at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield,
Speaker 2 7:03
okay,
Speaker 3 7:04
Missouri, and so we have several individuals that we're inducting into the Hall of Fame. I am in, like, the Michigan Bowhunting Hall of Fame. I'm also inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame at Bass Pro. I don't, I don't want to.. I've been very bull again.
Speaker 2 7:21
Yeah, we, we love to hear this stuff. This is great stuff. I mean,
Speaker 1 7:25
but I'm a
Speaker 3 7:25
big believer in giving back to the sport, and hence the reason I served on the board of directors for the different organizations. I mean, so many of us take from the sport, right? And bow hunting has been so good to me. I really believe everybody should give back in some way, and this is my way of giving back, is giving my time to these different conservation organizations and archery organizations.
Speaker 1 7:52
Hey, Tom, when you were, when you were starting out at a young age, kind of, who helped you refine your, your skills to hunt turkeys, because you know we know here in the Northeast, especially I'm hunting West Virginia, and we hunt in the mountains, and these birds are so difficult to bring in. And so, what kind of helped you hone your skills? Who helped you? How did you get started in that? I think hunters would be fascinated to know that, because we're all trying to fine tune that call to try to get that Tom to come in,
Speaker 3 8:23
and good, good question. And I have to say, I love turkey honey. Matter of fact, I've been out numerous times this spring, and had my wife out the other day before. I just got back from Saskatchewan, but just a few days before we went there, I had her out and called in a nice tom that she shot with her bow, and our birds here in Michigan are pretty savvy, you know. They're hunted pretty hard.
Speaker 1 8:45
Yeah,
Speaker 3 8:45
and we're here in the farm belt, so there's a lot of people out, lot of competition for the birds and such. But as far as how I'm pretty much a guy that was self-taught, because we didn't have - we don't have that rich tradition here in Michigan of turkey hunting. I mean, there was no turkey season until the late 1970s then it was highly restricted. I shouldn't say we actually had an earlier one in the late 50s, 60s for like three years, but then the winter kill was so bad on the birds they stopped it.
Speaker 1 9:15
Yeah, but
Speaker 3 9:16
um, so I was pretty much self-taught. I was very fortunate, I was able to hunt with a few of the legends of turkey hunting at a young age. Ben Rogers Lee from Alabama, I shot a bird with him one year and learned a lot in that week of hanging out with the master. He was taken too at a too young of an age from us, but the school of hard knocks for birds, you know, and I tell everybody, you don't have to be the best caller in the world by any means, you just have to know when to call, what to call to them, and then patience, patience, patience, because I strictly bow on them, I have I. For the first couple birds I shot with, with a shotgun, but I've 20, last 2530 years, I've been strictly a bow hunter.
Speaker 1 10:06
Wow,
Speaker 3 10:07
a lot of missed opportunities. I have to say, I've flung some arrows over the top of them underneath them, and they're hard. Honestly, Jim Doherty, famous archer, bow hunter, Jim Doherty once said there's two animals that shouldn't be hunted with a bow and arrow, one African elephant and the other one's the turkey smell. You probably heard this turkey could smell, we'd never kill one.
Speaker 1 10:33
That's right.
Speaker 2 10:33
Oh man, you know, Kip Campbell, I love what he said. He said shooting a turkey with a bow is like hitting a football with a baseball bat.
Speaker 3 10:44
Yeah,
Speaker 2 10:45
I thought that was a good analogy. I missed them with a shotgun, so I don't know what I do with a bow, you know?
Speaker 3 10:50
Yeah, I mean, it's like miniature elk hunting, you know? Sometimes they cooperate, yeah, time they don't, or
Speaker 1 10:57
yeah,
Speaker 3 10:57
they hang up out of bow range. It's, uh, it's frustrating, but I love
Speaker 1 11:01
it. Yeah,
Speaker 3 11:01
I must be a glutton for punishment. Is there
Speaker 1 11:06
a technique, Tom, that you found that that kind of works across the board, that kind of, you could, the average hunter here is listening to this show, trying to figure out how to get these Toms to come in? Is there, is there a couple of little things that you would say to a hunter that said these are a couple of practices that I would recommend you do.
Speaker 3 11:26
You know, one of them is patience. You know, I think oftentimes, and I've been with hunters that they want to move. Okay, nothing's happened in a, you know, 20 minutes, half hour, let's let's move to another spot. And patience is such a key. I mean, when I set up, I always spend at least a couple hours, because I, you know, I know there's birds around someplace, they're just not cooperating, and they hear so much better, you know. Lot of birds are listening, they're hearing, but a wise old gobbler, he might just shut up so often they'll come in silent. I've harvested a lot of birds again that that never made a peep.
Speaker 2 12:04
Yeah,
Speaker 3 12:04
wow, was patient enough. After an hour or two, all of a sudden you hear that drumming right next to so often. The bird week my wife arrowed here about 10 days ago, it was 1035
Speaker 1 12:23
Wow,
Speaker 3 12:24
and we are about, you know, we were gonna hunt till noon, and we hadn't heard anything in a couple hours. We heard some first thing in the morning fire off, just just didn't cooperate, and we'd set up, and I said, we're just gonna, we're just gonna sit here the rest of the morning at our last spot, and again calling sporadically every 1520 minutes, I'd yelp a little bit, and I'd mix up the calls, and I think that's.. I'm getting ahead of myself, but I think using a slate, a box call, and diaphragm, mixing that up is again.. don't, because sometimes they don't like the diaphragm, the box, and but they'll respond to the slate fishing lures, yeah, right. I throw it all at him, yeah. And this bird, we're again, we're sitting there, and can't remember, she was kind, she wasn't sleepy, but she was losing, and I hit her with my elbow. I said, "Tom, coming in, and here he was, he just coming in and strutting off to our right, and then I could hear him drumming, but had the decoy set up, but never made a, not a peek. Wow, just.. and I've seen that a lot more and more. I, I swear, these birds, you know, we're educating them every time we go there, but, but, but they're.. they know the drill, especially these older birds. So, again, patience, spending a lot of time out there. If you're not getting the response, switch calls, don't go afield with just a box or just a diaphragm. So many of my good hunting buddies, they're like, yeah, oh, diaphragms, only way to go, you know, the and that, that's all they use, and I'm like, mix it up, I carry the whole arsenal with me when I go out and I mix it up, and, and I think the same is, you know, I have to say, I kind of going against the what most folks do. I call probably more often, you know, a lot of guys I've hunted with, they'll call every 15 minutes or half hour, but I'll mix, I'll probably, I probably call every five to 10 minutes, I might just see a short series of yelps, but I'm more apt to, and then I take the feel of the bird. If I get a response, he's gobbling back every time, I might slow down a little bit. If he's not so interested, I might mix, you know, call a little louder, little more often, mix in hen yelps, and and be a little more aggressive, I guess. Do
Speaker 2 14:40
you always use decoys?
Speaker 3 14:42
Yeah, pretty much always. That's such a key.
Speaker 2 14:46
Oh, yeah, yeah. And do you use, like, what is your perfect setup for decoys? You use one Jake, one hen, or
Speaker 3 14:55
yep, usually I use a lay down hand with, with a non-strike, just a jake stand. Bean and I play some because I'm bow hunting about 12 yards, maybe 15 at the most. Used to hang up on the backside, but like this Tom came in and he pounded that Jake de, I mean, pounded, he was on top of it and had, and it's a stuffer Jake that I had stuff, and he tore a chunk on. Oh, wow, he was super aggressive. Wow,
Speaker 2 15:23
again,
Speaker 3 15:24
it was pretty neat to watch. Yeah,
Speaker 2 15:27
love to get that on video.
Speaker 3 15:28
I was just saying, and then there's other times, depending on the birds, you know, again, taking their temperature, how aggressive they are. I'll actually use a strutting Tom Decoy,
Speaker 1 15:38
oh,
Speaker 3 15:40
with a head,
Speaker 2 15:40
oh, you mean like a mature
Speaker 3 15:44
that one decoy they have out there that's Tom, but I use a Jake fan in it, though.
Speaker 2 15:50
Oh, yeah, I do the same thing. That's funny, because I don't know, I in Pennsylvania, they, you know, you might get to see a few gobblers coming in at one time, but I've had so many big gobblers hang up because I had that big, you know, turkey out there, you know, yep, and they weren't sure if they could take them, you know,
Speaker 3 16:09
I've never had them hang up on a Jake decoy myself,
Speaker 1 16:12
right? Yeah,
Speaker 2 16:14
all right, well, you've gotten so many different animals, I mean, I was reading that 300 big game animals, over 300 big game animals with a bow, and then you know 30 different species. What is your favorite species of animal to hunt?
Speaker 3 16:30
Again, I get asked that a lot, but honestly, I would say whitetail deer. I mean, I grew up hunting them from the time I was 14 years old, which was how old you had to be to hunt big game in Michigan, and I'm still to this day they really tripped my trigger, but as far as something off the wall, you like I have to just say this too, I'll fly home from being on an El Con or hunting and some, you know, something somewhere on a Sunday night, per se. The next morning I'll be on our farm by myself without a cameraman, hunting deer. I mean, I love it.
Speaker 1 17:09
Yeah,
Speaker 3 17:09
but besides whitetails, but as far as exotic stuff, I really like elk hunting because I like the fact that you can call and you don't have to be quiet, you know, you make noise and you're moving all the time, and then after that, probably spot and stalk mule deer, big mule deer. Oh, wow, such a challenge getting within bow range.
Speaker 1 17:28
Oh, I bet
Speaker 2 17:29
making it all happen. Oh man, yeah, I've seen so many videos of that, and I'm going.. I don't know if I could do that. The patient's
Speaker 3 17:36
super difficult, it really is, but I like the challenge of it,
Speaker 2 17:41
yeah,
Speaker 3 17:41
but elk probably is like, said my first after that, just begin, you know, seeing a big bull coming in, and he's slobbering, and he's squealing, you almost lose it, you know, maintaining that cool in common, and getting, you know, getting your bow back, and making that shot, it's
Speaker 1 18:01
just
Speaker 2 18:01
I had a friend of mine that went out. I've never gone for elk with a bow. I went with a rifle, but, but the.. but he had.. he's calling away, and he had this big old bull charge right up to him, within 10 feet, was using his antlers to kick up dirt on the guy, and the guy sitting there with the bow in his hand, totally petrified. He couldn't even draw it back, he couldn't move, he was so scared, he thought he was going to die. And then the elk runs off, he goes back, he didn't get one, he goes back the next year, the same thing happened. He said, "Heck with this bow, give me a rifle. The same thing, he got, he got petrified, he was scared he was going to be killed. So, yeah, it's got to be an adrenaline mover, man.
Speaker 3 18:48
I took a good friend of mine, I'm not going to say his name, but he had never hunted out before, and he just really wanted to go, and so I said, "Come with me, you know, I'm going to Montana. We drew a license to, and we're out there, and I was sticking pretty close to him, because he was a complete novice, and called in this bull, really nice five by five, and he came in, and it, I don't know, 2025 yards max, and he's raking this bush, and he's tearing it up, I mean, he's really fired up,
Speaker 1 19:19
yeah,
Speaker 3 19:19
and I'm right over his shoulder, I mean, I'm right behind him, and I've got my hand on his shoulder and stuff, and okay, no, draw back, because he took, he's just raking the street, I said, 'draw, drop, draw back, right now, draw back, draw back, and he's just holding his bow in front of him, like
Speaker 1 19:35
he's frozen,
Speaker 3 19:36
draw, draw your boat out like that, and I'm getting louder, you know, he's just frozen, and the bull gets done and turns towards us, and he's head on, you know, yeah, no shot, and he's still just like this, finally the bull figures something out, and off he takes. This goes on over five minutes, I'm not kidding you, it's all on,
Speaker 1 19:56
oh my goodness,
Speaker 3 19:57
and, and I, and I said. To Hamilton, Dale said, "Why didn't you draw back? I don't know. He said, "I just couldn't move. I was like frozen,
Speaker 2 20:11
petrified. Yeah, I
Speaker 3 20:13
felt so bad for him, because it was such an opportunity, point blank range. Oh my goodness, just couldn't do it, and, and I never gave him any static over it, because I get it. I mean, they're over, you know, such a big animal, but I'll never forget it, and I guarantee you, he'll never forget it. Still talks about it to this day.
Speaker 1 20:32
Well, speaking of that, Tom, how do you, how do you overcome that? You know, the average hunter gets that. I mean, I still, to this day, I'm 66 years old, I still get pretty jacked when I see a six point. I mean, I just, you know, they're right there, they're coming in, and it's just exciting. But you know, as I get older and more mature, you probably found this too. You just find yourself saying to yourself, it's only a deer, it's only a buck, it's not a big deal, just calm down, and that seems to work for me. But are there techniques that you guys or that you've used over the years to kind of get yourself into that zone, that shoot zone?
Speaker 3 21:06
David, honestly, I still to this day, after you know, hunting nonstop for the well, 50 years coming up,
Speaker 1 21:15
wow,
Speaker 3 21:15
I still get that adrenaline rush excitement, and I pray to God I never lose that
Speaker 1 21:21
true. Yeah,
Speaker 3 21:22
I love that. I, I, I do have a way that I wrestle with, because I oftentimes, with especially when you first spot something, you know, your heart gets pounding, hear that gobble right behind you, or
Speaker 1 21:35
whatever.
Speaker 3 21:36
I get tried to think of a word, almost mad, I almost get mad, like, okay, let's get it on, you know, let's..
Speaker 1 21:45
that's what you use, yeah, that's your
Speaker 3 21:46
trip, and it helps me personally, but when I lose it is right after the shot,
Speaker 2 21:53
yeah, that's when the adrenaline
Speaker 3 21:55
pumps, it runs out, and then I.. then I start, I look at my handshake, and again, I pray I never lose that, because it's that's so cool. It
Speaker 1 22:04
is so cool. I
Speaker 2 22:05
always blame it on the cold weather, usually. No, I'm not shaking, it's a cold weather, you know.
Speaker 3 22:12
80 degrees out, absolutely. But
Speaker 2 22:18
you know, I met your wife at Forksville, you know, Pennsylvania, and, and she seemed to be right there with you. It was, I mean, like my wife hunting, hunting with us, you know, it's just incredible. But your schedule, I remember you were well, and she was listening and had some facial expressions, but you were, you were talking about how you slept in your bed, like maybe a handful of times that year that we met. You said this last year I might have slept in my bed, my own bed, you know, 10 times or something. You said I can't remember, but
Speaker 3 22:52
probably embellishing that, but like during hunting season, from we start out in August and we don't wrap up till the end of January, and one year I know during that, that period I slept in my own bed 13 times,
Speaker 2 23:07
yeah,
Speaker 3 23:08
in like five months
Speaker 2 23:09
now. How does that, how do you keep your marriage? Because you guys seem to be so like one, you know, and I know you're you've got faith in Christ, and all, and I want to talk about that, but how do you keep that marriage so solid? You know,
Speaker 3 23:22
you know, we, we're like the per, the perfect match. I mean, she understands, she's my biggest supporter. I mean, people, I, my mom, God bless her, she's, she's passed away now, but she used to say to Beth, how do you put up with that? Why do you let him do that? I don't let him do it. She would say, you know, I know that's what his passion, and he loves it. And I, you know, and I accept that. And, and I spend, as you know, a lot of time with her during the off season. I mean, we're in the winter months and such, we do everything together. And she goes on a lot of these hunts with me too. She loves, she's a bow hunter. She loves hunting, she loves the outdoors. She's quite a fisher woman. She loves the fish, and so, so we do a lot together. And
Speaker 2 24:10
how long you been married?
Speaker 3 24:12
It'd be 41 years this coming.
Speaker 2 24:16
Yeah, I'm 40. We're going on 47
Speaker 3 24:20
Congratulations.
Speaker 2 24:21
Yeah, you too. Well, it
Speaker 3 24:23
took me a while to find somebody I thought could handle me being gone all the time.
Speaker 2 24:27
Yes, this
Speaker 3 24:28
is funny. I, when we, when I proposed to her, I said, I just want you to know, if we're ever going to have any trouble, it's going to be over hunting, so if you, if you don't, don't like this idea, or whatever, or have any qualms, back out now. She tells that story to people, he warned me. Yep, she said, I, I accept it, and she keeps busy, and yeah, and stuff. So it's we, and again. I keep saying, saying this, but I have been really blessed. I mean, in my marriage, in my life, and my opportunities, and, and I never take that for granted. I, and I tell her, I hope I do a good job of telling her how much her support means to me.
Speaker 1 25:13
Well, Tom, I did the exact same thing, and I proposed to my wife on the top of the hay bale. I said, I just, and it was all about deer hunting. I said, "I just need two weeks. I offered a deal, I thought, "I just need.. I just need two weeks in November. Two weeks is all I'm asking. She said, "No problem, but I was the same way you. I had to bring that into my conversation because you just wanted, and she says it just like your wife. I went in with eyes wide open. I knew exactly what he loved to do
Speaker 2 25:40
that's great, that's great. Well, listen, the stand outdoors is a place we like to say where you know faith and the outdoors come together, and and we were trying to help people take a stand for Christ. You know, it's a little play on words, you got you hunt out of tree stands and you're taking a stand for Christ, and and a lot of guys are just connected already to spiritual thing, just be an out in God's creation, you know. But I wanted to have you share how maybe when you first came to know Christ. I don't know if you were raised up in a Christian family or you came to know Christ like I did, and I was 19. It was later in life, you know. But, but can you tell us about that?
Speaker 3 26:19
You know, I, I was raised in a Christian home. We went to church every Sunday, and Beth and I still do today. If I'm home, I miss being gone in the fall. I miss a lot of opportunities to attend church, but when we're home, we're very good about attending. We've been members of the same church I would that I was brought up in to this day, and God's a big part of our life. He has been, and my wife, same thing, she was brought up as a Christian, and we have a very strong faith in God. I talked to him every day, every morning I'd have some quiet time alone, and pray, and so yes, he, he's again, he, I'm so blessed every day, I thank him, and for the opportunities, but I, I, so I don't think there's a time in my life that I can look back and say this is, you know,
Speaker 1 27:16
the moment
Speaker 3 27:17
when I really
Speaker 2 27:18
conversion moment or something,
Speaker 1 27:20
yep,
Speaker 3 27:20
but I think my faith is stronger now than it ever has been in, and I see God's hand in my daily life oftentimes, and things that happen, and I'll just shake my head, and you know, praise God for if I have a successful hunt, first thing I do is, you know, thank him for, for everything. I'm very.. I really believe that being thankful to the Lord is a big part of having a successful life. Amen. Amen. Things,
Speaker 1 27:52
yes.
Speaker 3 27:53
And so, you know, so I may be overdo it, but I'm constantly thanking him for just little things. I flew home Sunday night from Saskatchewan, and when I walked off the air, off the airplane, after I thanked him for getting home safe, you know, and things like that's really important, and I don't think people do that enough.
Speaker 2 28:18
Yeah, be in grave
Speaker 1 28:19
gratitude, yes,
Speaker 2 28:20
being grateful is so it's such a, and it's so wise, because even the breath you just took is grace, you know, is from God. I always tell people anything above hell is grace, you know, because really that's what we really deserve. So it's crazy. So, well, I was going to find out, do you, do you have a special, like devotional that you like to use, or anything in the morning, or do you have, like, you said you do something in the morning when you get up every day?
Speaker 3 28:51
I do.
Speaker 2 28:52
What is that like?
Speaker 3 28:54
I, it's again, it's some alone time I spend in oftentimes right in my office here, and nothing, no, no computer on, no TV, nothing, just quiet time, and I, and it's actually, I, it's a conversation like you and I are having,
Speaker 1 29:15
right?
Speaker 3 29:16
I'll say, like, I don't really want to go into a lot of things I talk about, but I just first of all, thank the Lord for the day ahead, for the past night, for resting well. I go over different things that's going on in my life, and ask for His blessings, and every day is different. I might, it might only be five minutes,
Speaker 1 29:39
right? Maybe an
Speaker 3 29:40
hour,
Speaker 2 29:41
right? Yeah,
Speaker 3 29:42
you know, and and then again every night before I go hit the hay, I take a moment and thank him for for what transpired during the day, and and you know, even you know, even there's days that you, we all. Of bad days, where things aren't going well, and such, and God always, He's always there behind you, you know, He's with you during that, and there's a reason, and I believe everything happens for a reason, but you know, these people that get get upset, and they think that God isn't there with them, or God's forsaken
Speaker 1 30:20
them,
Speaker 3 30:21
I don't believe that he, everything happens for a reason, and the Lord's there with you, he's walking that path, he's right there with you, and if you don't believe that, shame on you, because he is there, he's with you all the time, and there's a reason for things to happen, but praying is, you know, God answers your prayers, and it's so, so important, and I think that's, you know, I actually probably spend more time talking to him now than I did 20 years ago to get older. I think my faith is stronger right now than it's ever been my entire life, and I always believed that I was a good Christian, even as a young, young man, as a teenager, and, and such, I always, always trusted in the Lord, and I think it's a big part. I, again, I believe that's why I've been successful. I believe that's why God answered so many of my prayers, and He's opened the doors for me time and time again, and I'm again, I'm repeating myself, but I think that's why it's so important to be thankful. It really is. Thank the Lord for what He does, even the smallest things,
Speaker 2 31:28
and that you pray about Him is beautiful, because it shows your dependency. You know, you understand that we're dependent upon Him for life itself. And then, and then the way you know James says, you know, you have not because you ask not. A lot of times, you know, we, we, we just don't take the time to say, Lord, what? What do you think about this? I have, I'd love to see this happen, or whatever. And you'd let him know what your requests are, and it's amazing how he will answer those. Yeah,
Speaker 3 31:59
and you know, I'll, I talk to him. I always say, talk, I pray, pray.
Speaker 1 32:03
Yeah, that's
Speaker 2 32:04
it. That's what it is.
Speaker 3 32:04
And when I'm in the tree stand, when
Speaker 2 32:08
I'm,
Speaker 3 32:08
while I'm tromping through the woods, I really do. And going back to something you said a bit ago about when you're in the tree stand, I mean, I pray all the time from a stand, a ground blind, a tree stand wherever you're at all the time, ask God for this or that, or just go over the day with them, and it's perhaps different for a lot of people because I carry on a conversation with them,
Speaker 1 32:34
yeah,
Speaker 3 32:34
all you know the way I call it when I when I pray and go over things with him and
Speaker 2 32:41
and that that way it's authentic, it's good, yeah, it's authentic, it's real, it's not, you know, memorizing a prayer, it's from your own heart, you know, which is Romans 120 says that God's clearly seen by the things that He's made, and we as hunters are out there in His creation so much, and I believe we have a special connection that way, and that's why we created the Stand Outdoors, because we want to reach hunters. We've created this Bible study that has videos, you know, of hunting and fishing, and, and yet it's a Bible study with a leader's guide, a participant's guide, everything you need to have an incredible, you know, Bible study and learn about God, and, and we're, and it's all free, that's the thing I love about it. We do it as a 501 c3 nonprofit ministry, so that people can download it anywhere, you know, in the world, really, if they have a computer, and we're so excited that we've been able to have you on on the show here, Tom, and, and hopefully, you know they'll see you, and they go well, if he's willing to talk with Mike and Dave. Well, then maybe I'll check this Bible study. Yeah,
Speaker 1 33:48
and I
Speaker 3 33:48
encourage them to, yeah, important.
Speaker 1 33:50
Well, thank you, Tom, for spending time with us, and blessings on you and your wife as you continue to do the things that you love to do and be together as a couple. And thank you for joining us on the Stand outdoors.com We hope to talk with you again sometime soon.
Speaker 3 34:04
Well, it's been my honor and privilege, and I appreciate it. And I'd be glad to be a guest on again. I thank you, guys.
Speaker 2 34:12
Thank you, Tom.
Speaker 1 34:12
Thank you, my friend.
Speaker 3 34:15
Thank you.
Speaker 1 34:15
Bye, bye, bye. We would love to hear from you. We'd love to hear your stories. So, please send us a note or question by going to our homepage at The Stand outdoors.com and hit the contact tab. Also, we'd love to pray for you too. Leave your prayer request by hitting the contact tab or do you know Jesus tab.
Speaker 2 34:35
Yeah, also check out our Targeting the Truth Bible Studies. We have these Bible studies that include hunting videos. Let me think about it. When was the last time you went to a Bible study and got to watch a hunting video? Well, that's what targeting the truth Bible studies include. You watch a video, then I share the three to five minute spiritual message at the end, but then you go into the five. Discussion questions, you have leaders guide, you have everything you need. You're so
Speaker 1 35:04
good
Speaker 2 35:04
right there to have a men's group, you know. You can download it, and guess what, guys? It's all free. It's right there for you. Anybody in the stinking world that has a computer can can download this for free, and we, you know, we want to keep it that way, because we want to reach as many people and the outdoor community as we can,
Speaker 1 35:27
and it's all found at The Stand outdoors.com Check it out. Hey, Mike, and I would just thank you for joining us today on the podcast. You can find it anywhere, it's in on Apple, Spotify, many other platforms. If you enjoyed this episode. Please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a fellow hunter, and you can get all the details about our guests. Any links can be found on our show notes, and you can find us online anytime, day or night, 24 hours a day, free of charge. The Stand outdoors.com that's The Stand outdoors.com Until next time, for my case, I'm Dave Baker,
Speaker 2 36:00
and remember, stand firm in the faith and keep targeting the truth.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai