Ole' Bernie and the Squirrel

Every country boy needs a good squirrel hunting dog when he's growing up. Ole' Bernie proved to be that for Little John. Ole' Bernie came to live with Little John and his family when Little John was about four years old. Ole' Bernie and Little John had a lot of adventures as they both matured.

One of Ole' Bernie's traits was treeing a squirrel and barking as long as he could see the squirrel. One day, Little John heard Ole' Bernie barking. As the barking continued, Little John headed toward the bark only to find Ole' Bernie with his feet on the tree trunk, looking up at a big, fat squirrel on one of the lower tree limbs
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Little John ran back to the house as fast as his little legs would carry him.

"Mom, mom, Ole' Bernie's got a big, fat squirrel treed. If you'd let me take Dad's twenty-two, I'd get that old squirrel and we'd have fried squirrel for supper!"

"Now, Son, you know you are too young to be takin' your dad's gun and tryin' to shoot a squirrel. Just let Ole' Bernie bark. He'll get tired and quit pretty soon."

"No, he won't, Mom! You know how he is. He'll bark 'till he can't bark no longer and he might just fall over from the heat. Please, Mom, I'll be mighty careful and I'll come right back. Dad would love that fried squirrel for supper when he comes home from work.......you know how he loves the way you fry squirrel," begged Little John.

"Son, go on and find somethin' else to do and don't bother me any longer. You can't take your dad's gun and that's final."

So, Little John sauntered out of the house; head down and kickin' up dirt, mad as a wet hen, on his way back down to that tree. He was bound and determined to get that ole' squirrel one way or another.

Ole' Bernie was still barkin' up a storm and that big, ole' fat squirrel was lookin' down at Bernie knowin' that dogs don't climb trees.

As Little John continued to walk and kick rocks, an idea popped into his head. He picked up one of the flat rocks; took aim at that ole' squirrel and let fly! The rock hit the squirrel in the head and down he fell! Ole' Bernie didn't even take a breath before he had that squirrel killed. Little John, proud as punch, picked up the dead squirrel, threw his little shoulders back and proudly marched back to the house. He had helped his dad skin squirrels enough that he had no problem skinning him. Then off to the kitchen he marched.

"Lookie' here what I got, Mom, get that fryin' pan out 'cause we're gonna have fried squirrel for dinner tonight!

"SON, how on earth did you do that? Mom said, with a startled look on her face.

"I ain't tellin', Mom, I ain't tellin'.

One thing about Little John; he was determined. How determined are we? Are we determined to live as much like Christ as we can? Are we determined to make the right decisions in our lives regardless of what evil comes against us? We must try not to let ourselves be distracted or discouraged in our Christian walk but when that happens, we need to be more determined than ever to not allow Satan to have the victory.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 (NKJV)