A Lesson in Values from the Swamp Fox

I love being Uncle Rick.  I love reading the Scriptures and explaining them to kids. I love telling “example stories” to them to make character applications that, hopefully, will affect the way kids live their lives as they grow up and afterward. 

It’s a treat to hear back from the kids, too.  Last weekend a family from Delaware was visiting in our town and emailed ahead to ask if six-year-old Hannah could possibly meet Uncle Rick while they were here.  You better believe she could, and she did. And there’s little Michael from Alabama, who calls me every few months just to chat. Notes written in pencil on tablet paper and pictures drawn with crayon come every so often and make me feel like a celebrity. 

One of the deepest satisfactions of my role as Uncle Rick is knowing that I am introducing children all over the country to some great books that my grandparents may have read as children, but which have long since disappeared from library and bookstore shelves. I’m talking about the kind of books that people used to write for kids, books that teach values and morals and worthy character.  Fiction or nonfiction, there was a time when authors saw their job as not just entertaining young people, but inspiring them. I remember a few such books from my childhood, though they were getting scarce even then. Now we’ve found an online source for old books, and I get to revive these treasures and share them with a new generation of young Americans as I read and comment on them as Uncle Rick.

My most recent recording project was a book about General Francis Marion, the famous “Swamp Fox” of the Revolutionary War. Written in 1892, it’s a great true adventure story with action in every chapter.  But it’s also a window into the heart of a great patriot who sacrificed much and risked all, to win liberty for future generations.  

Let me share with you a condensed section of the book, which I recorded as “Uncle Rick Reads, Marion’s Men”.

In chapter 32, True Greatness, General Marion has arranged a prisoner exchange with a British officer and has invited the man to share dinner with him before leaving.  Finding that dinner consists of nothing but sweet potatoes roasted in the camp fire, the Englishman questions Marion on what might be the motivation for him and his followers to endure such lean rations as they fought a war.  What, he wondered, would men care about so much that they would wear rags, eat scanty provisions, sleep in the swamp and go without pay while daily risking their lives?  Marion gave an impassioned reply:

“It is a matter of principle, sir.  When a man is interested he will do and suffer anything.  Many a youth would think it hard to be indentured at a trade for fourteen years.  But let him be head over heels in love with such a beauteous sweetheart as Rachel, and he will think no more of fourteen years’ servitude than did Jacob.  That is just my case.  I am in love.”

“You in love, General?” asked the Englishman.

“Yes, I am in love, and I have the most beautiful sweetheart; her name is Liberty.

“Be that beauteous nymph my companion, and these wilds and woods have charms beyond London or Paris.  To have no proud monarch driving over me with his gilt coaches; nor his host of excise men and tax gatherers insulting and robbing me; but to be my own master, my own prince and sovereign, gloriously preserving my national dignity, and pursuing my true happiness; planting my vineyards and eating the luscious fruit, sowing my fields and reaping the golden grain; and seeing millions of brothers all around me, equally free and happy as myself.  This, sir, is what I long and fight for.”

The English officer had but seldom listened to such eloquence, simple yet grand, earnest and persuasive.

“As a man and a Briton, I must say your picture is a happy one.”

“Happy,” said Marion; “yes, happy indeed!  And I would rather fight for such blessings for my country, and feed on roots, than keep aloof, though wallowing in all the luxuries a Solomon could bestow.

“Now, sir, I walk the soil that gave me birth, and exult in the thought that I am not unworthy of it.  I look upon these venerable trees around me, and feel that I do not dishonor them.  I think of my sacred rights, and I rejoice that I have not basely deserted them.

“And when I look forward, sir, to the long ages of posterity, I glory in the thought that I am fighting their battles.  The children of distant generations may never hear my name, but still it gladdens my heart to think that I am now contending for their freedom, and all its countless blessings.”

The Englishman put out his hand.  “We are enemies,” said he, “but as a man I acknowledge you are right, and I would to God my country would let you go your own way.”

And the young officer never rested until he had thrown up his commission and left the British service.  When the clouds of war had blown over he told Marion that he never again could live under a monarchy.  He bought an estate in Carolina, and married an American.  Several of his descendants have at times distinguished themselves, and more than one has occupied the gubernatorial chair.  The seed sown by General Marion fell on good ground and bore most excellent fruit.

That book was written fifteen years before my grandfather was born, and is the kind of stuff he used to read as a boy.  Now, I have a little part in making it available to thousands of young people all across America, kids who otherwise might never have known it existed.  If I had never accomplished anything else in my ministry, these years would not have been wasted.

See why I love being Uncle Rick?


~Rick Boyer

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What Can Your Child Learn From Uncle Rick Audios?

Letter from a Mom:

As I was preparing to leave for the Homeschool Convention today, I was telling my 5 year old son that I was going to see Uncle Rick on my trip. He was speechless for a second, his mouth gaped open, and he said, "The real Uncle Rick? Are you going to see his real face?" He couldn't believe I was going to get to see the real person who he hears every night as he goes to sleep. After talking a bit, he started telling me how much he loved Uncle Rick and all the things he knew from listening to your CD's . So I wrote down what he said, word for word, just so you could see what an impact you have made in one child's life.

"I like his scripture CD's because they tell about Jesus and I really like that it pauses and he does stuff so that you know what it means."

"My favorite is James because I like it soooo much and it keeps pausing/stopping to describe what it means....like words I don't even know. And I enjoy listening to Matthew, but I've had that one long enough that I know it all.

"I like to do Uncle Rick at nighttime. It is my favorite time."

"I would like to buy a big case of them."

"Does he make the CD's at night?" (because I listen to them at night)

"I really like the time when it talks about the farmer whacking off dead branches-the evil ones he clips off and the good ones he leaves on the plant."

"I like it when he pauses and talks about grafting apple trees.

"I remember when he said about who we should go along with and people we should not."

"When bad people try to get you to go along with them, don't go along."

"Solomon wrote a lot of Proverbs and all of Ecclesiastes."

"The rich aren't worth anymore than the poor man to God. The famous and powerful don't impress God at all. He loves the poor and miserable and people like me who might not be all that smart."

"If you have a trial, you shouldn't say I am tempted of God, or I am tempted by God."

"It is much easier to get in a problem than get out of one."

"If you do something bad, sooner or later God will give you a spiritual spanking."

And he kept going and going, telling more and more about what he had learned just from listening to the CD's at night.

I think the ministry you provide for families is incredible. I tell everyone I know about the Scripture CD's your make and about your books as well. I have used your family and what I've read from your books as a guide in so many ways as to how we are raising our family. I am so grateful to be able to learn from your wisdom and creative ideas. I think it is so wonderful how God has used you to help Christian families like mine become stronger in the Lord, raise godly children of integrity, and practically live out Deuteronomy 6 in our everyday life. Thank you for having the biggest impact on my family and me in the spiritual development of our children."

Stephanie