My current calling has been a trial.
This one has stretched me to the limit. It think it is mostly because it came right when my schooling became demanding. It also came after just a six week reprieve from being in another presidency. My husband has been EQ president the whole time as well. Because of the scouting responsibilities associated with my primary calling, the work seems never-ending. Admittedly, it also seems rather unbalanced too. Like the difference between being the education counselor and being the enrichment (or whatever) counselor in Relief Society. Scouting and primary are forever short-staffed and sometimes feel like I'm butting my head with non-handbook traditions that can't seem to go away even when logic dictates they should. When you have a smallish primary, you need almost as many people to run Cubs and 11 year old scouts as you have children.
The Silver Lining.
Our Cubs program is getting better all the time. Our leaders are good and committed. At last week's Pack meeting nearly every boy got an award and each kid was in uniform, mostly with their awards attached. This program has been greatly beneficial. to Jedi Knight, who just graduated last week. Our Webelos and 11 year old leaders did such a good job that his Arrow of Light ceremony and Crossing Over were truly memorable and meant a lot to him. He was even a little emotional about "growing up." I know I was. I have a testimony of the Scouting program and what it can do for boys, and I have another one starting up in December. Scouting, and my involvement in it, has been a huge blessing in their lives. Now I'm off to the grocery store to get ingredients for foil dinners so that Jedi Knight can go on his first scouting camp out tonight.
3 comments:
It's interesting to read about your current calling and "testimony of the Scouting program" because this is something I struggle with. The resources devoted to scouting seem so disproportionate to those given to the girls and young women; and too often it seems like the scouting program becomes the focus of the young men's program, which to me is not an adequate substitute for a program tailored for spiritual growth. But my actual experience with scouting, particularly with the cub scouts, is small. So would you please tell me specific things you love about scouting, especially cub scouts, as well as specific shortcomings you have experienced? It would help me.
Cathy--Your comments are excellent. I'm not sure if you would get a longer response here, so when I finish my silver lining posts I will address this one more specifically. Because I DO agree that the resources are disproportionate, especially for the teenagers. However, rather than believe in the abandonment of the scout program, I think things can be done in YW to give them a more meaningful experience too. For more about Scouting, from somebody with some actual clout, I would strongly recommend starting with Brother Beck's article on Scouting in the June Ensign. I will take a couple of weeks to organize my thoughts and respond.
Thank you. I'll wait for that post. My oldest son turned eight this year and I have lots of conflicted feelings about scouts...our family is always short on energy (well, the parental part of it lacks energy. The child portion of it bounces off of walls), and I try to very carefully assess the worth of any activity I have to take our children to. If I'm going to wake up the baby to take the eight year old to scouts, I need to really believe it's worth going to.
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