When I get home at night after a long day, sometimes I want to plop down on the couch and act like a lazy bum. My wife says, “sometimes?” I do like to watch TV, but mostly it is sports — Braves, Hawks, or some college b-ball. I don’t have a regular network show that I watch. I don’t, but I can’t say that for my family.

At those times when I want to be the lazy bum preacher (I know, I know, we only work one day a week), I come home and the family has stolen my TV. When I say my TV, I mean the nice one in the living room that has HD, not the small one in the bedroom. When I say stolen, I mean they have it, I don’t, and if I want to watch something on it, I have to watch what they are watching. It has gotten to the point where, before my key is in the front door, I can tell you what they are watching: “Duck Dynasty.”

Sheri and Natalie are hooked on it like the first time I tasted boiled peanuts.

So, my choices are to watch it or watch college basketball on a TV the size of a basketball in LD (low definition). So, I sit and watch.

To the uninitiated, “Duck Dynasty” is a show on A&E about a family in Louisiana, the Robertsons, who are by their own admission, rednecks, and long-bearded ones at that. They just happen to have made millions with a duck call business that is family-run. The family is full of Louisiana characters (chief of whom is Uncle Si, “Hey, Jack…”) who seem to be more about mischief than about work.

This is, so called, “Reality TV.” However, it is very much staged for the cameras. But, I have to admit, it is funny as heck, with some good life lessons thrown in. I do enjoy watching it from time to time though I am not hooked like some others I know.

One recent episode had a grandchild, age 13, on her first date with her boyfriend. Her dad, Willie, the CEO of the company, is scared out of his mind about his little baby girl on her first date. He decides to take the boy, Beau, hunting to find out more about him and, in that culture, hunting is a way to prove his worth. The dad drills the poor boy with every question you can imagine, and since Beau proves himself good with a rifle (he shoots a snake), he passes the “daddy test” and is deemed fit to date his daughter.

I told Natalie I am going to take her first date to the golf course to prove himself to me. If he can grip a club and swing it OK he has a chance to date my daughter. If not, too bad.

I’m like Willie, I don’t think there is a guy in this world good enough to date Natalie. If he passes a police background check, comes from a good family, is studying for the ministry, and has a 4.0 GPA, then maybe he gets a pass. I know that I will say to him what Willie said to Beau, “You make her cry, I will make you cry.”

Is there any greater love in all this world (and the other world of Louisiana) than a parent for their kid? The Bible tells us that God loves the whole wide world like a dad does his daughter or a mom loves a son. How can that be? I have known it from the first day our son and daughter were born, but it got reinforced by a long-bearded red neck from Louisiana.

Davis is the pastor of the First Baptist Church in Carrollton.