My Son

Day #5: My Son, Matthew Chesney, I call him Matt.
Matt believes, and I agree, that he was born in the wrong time period. He longs to live in the time such as I was raised in when things were different. Back when you could still roam through fields and take shortcuts through people's yards without anyone caring or getting mad. Back when you could still ride your bicycle on the road without worrying about being ran over or abducted.

Matt loves the outdoors, hunting, fishing, or whatever. But he also loves reading and learning. He hates for us to tell everyone but he has maintained a 4.0 GPA nearly his whole school career. He is just naturally gifted with intelligence. Unlike me he is a math genius.

Matt is the kind of kid that I would have liked to have as a friend. One thing he loves is hanging out with his buddies; Cole, Koby, and Ryan. He bugs us all the time wanting to either go to one of their houses or for them to come to ours. All of them seem to have a great time and they are all good boys so we don't have to worry about them like my parents had to worry about me.

Not only is Matt intelligent but he is very talented. It seems no matter what he sets out to do he manages to do it better than anyone else. I only gave him a few pointers on learning the guitar when he was very young and the next thing I knew he could outplay me by a long-shot. I taught him how to follow shape notes in the Church Hymnal and now he has taken over my bass part when we sing. I gave him a fishing rod and the next thing I know he can out fish me and has caught much bigger fish than I've even dreamed of, which by the way, he has mounted and hanging on his bedroom wall.

He is very focused when it comes to learning... almost too much. He becomes obsessed with being the best at it and if he feels that he isn't he gets very frustrated. Once he does master something he usually leaves it behind and moves on to something else. He gets bored if he isn't challenged.

One of Matthew's fears in life is that he is going to follow me and my dad into a career that he hates. He wants to earn plenty of money but he doesn't want to be unhappy in his job. He's always trying to break away from the mold and he has hopes of being the first Chesney to love their job, and the first Chesney to learn good carpentry skills so everything he builds isn't crooked. He's already proud of the fact that he is the first Chesney that is able to do math...

When I was a young man money would burn a hole in my pocket. Even to this day I have absolutely no value in money. If I have some I spend it or give it away, but not Matt. He is very careful with his money. If he sets his sights on something that he wants and doesn't have the money, he will do every odd job he can to try and raise the money. He squirrels it away and saves it until he has enough and nothing you can say to him will convince him to get into it before he is ready. I guess that's a good thing!

There are many things that I admire about my son but I suppose the thing that I respect him the most for is his work ethic. He is one of the hardest workers of anyone you have ever seen. He can work from sun up to sun down and never give up no matter how big the task may be. And, everything that he does he makes dead-level sure that it is done to perfection. If he mows a yard and it doesn't look suitable to him, he will mow it all over again in a different direction. I've seen him work with other men and pull more than his fair share of the load and equal to any man you put him up against.

I pray that Matthew continues to let the Lord guide his life and he keeps making smart decisions. I pray everything that he dreams and hopes for comes true for him. I honestly believe he could do or be anything he put his mind to.