Today I got to attend the Eagle Scout Court of Honor for one of the scouts that was in my troop four years ago when we were in our last ward. It truly was a privilege, and his father even asked me to lead the Eagle Pledge and officially pronounce him an Eagle Scout.
It brought back lots of memories. This was the kid who didn't listen to me when I recommended putting the food away before we went to bed. When we got up the next morning, some critter, probably a raccoon or a skunk, had gnawed a big hole in their box of pancake mix. "Look," the kids said, "something has been eating our food." This kid then proceeded to mix up the pancakes, by shaking the pancake mix into a bowl, taking full advantage of the gnawed-on-by-the-animal hole in the box. (When I am the Scoutmaster, the adults cook their own food.)
At the court of honor, he said some really nice things, such as this: "I would like to thank Brother Brunner for teaching me self-reliance. He had a rule that if you didn't bring something on a campout, then you could just do without. To be honest, we had a rough couple of campouts."
I've been a troop committee chairman and I'm still a merit badge counselor for about 8 merit badges, so I still work with scouts.
ReplyDeleteThey are an interesting bunch.
And they often grow out of their deficiencies!
Thanks goodness!