“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

Matthew 6: 28-29

My wife, Kristin, and I named our fourth daughter, “Lily,”  after one of my favorite scriptures in the New Testament, “Consider the lilies of the field . . . ” (Matthew 6: 28) and we’ve been considering her ever since.  She makes sure of it! You see, Lily is what we like to call, “sweet and sour.”  Sometimes she can be so cute and sweet it melts your heart and other times she can be so sour, it causes your face to pucker like when you eat “Atomic Warheads.”  Either way, we love her dearly and we take the good with the bad.

Lily is now four years old and is at the point where she loves to go fishing with her Dad.  Last Friday night, I tried to get the whole Wayment Clan to go fishing on the South Fork of the Snake River, but my son Ben didn’t feel well; so Kristin declined on the family fishing outing.  That night, I promised Lily I would take her fishing Saturday morning and we would get treats at the gas station.

And, after she awoke first thing Saturday morning, she came into my bedroom and forcefully reminded me of my promise, “Daddy, today I want you to take me fishing so that I can catch a fish, you can take my picture, and you can post it on Facebook.”

“Sounds like a plan!” I replied with a laugh.

When the sun was high and bright, my wife Kristin and I loaded up our three youngest kids, Eden, Lily and Ben and we traveled over to my favorite fishing spot on the South Fork.  We couldn’t get our three older stick-in-the-mud kids to go with us.  With such a beautiful day, the river was busy and many of the places that I wanted to fish were already taken.  Notwithstanding, we decided to give the river a try anyway.  Although it is so much bigger, I love this particular stretch of river because it reminds me of the Big Wood River with all the river’s channels and the surrounding cottonwoods.  So my nickname for this treasured spot is, “The BIG Big Wood.”

I put Ben in the toddler backpack and Lily stayed near my side as we worked some marginal-looking areas of the river.  Meanwhile, Kristin helped Eden fish with an Ugly Stick rigged with a Rapala.  We worked our way downstream to a prime lie along a slight bend in the monstrous river, where a fisherman had just fished through.  Hoping to get Lily into a fish, I decided to try it anyway while Lily patiently waited on the bank.

After about five minutes of fishing, the strike indicator jolted under the water and I set the hook.  I then hustled back to the bank and told Lily as I handed her the fly rod, “Here’s your fish, now you get to reel it in.”  The struggling trout was the perfect size for a four year old and, to my relief, stayed hooked.   When we finally got it to the bank, I took the obligatory photo of Lily with her catch on my iPhone.  Lily’s smile was unforgettable.

By this time, Ben was done riding in the backpack.  I asked Kristin if I could fish my way back to the car, to which she graciously agreed.  And I was glad to find that the fish were biting in this deep eddy, where I brought a few beauties to hand.  On the way home, we stopped by the Sinclair where Lily chose a Bug Juice and some Cheetos to celebrate her accomplishment.

Later that day, as she had instructed, I posted the photos of Lily and her fish on Facebook.  I’m so grateful that we got to spend some time together on the river.  You know, the scripture sums up perfectly my sentiments on my daughter:  “Even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

For those of you who enjoyed this post, check out my book: www.heavenonearthbook.com.

KEEP FISHIN’ WITH FAITH!

Andy