When I was called Brother Johnston said they wanted a woman because we are more organized and detail oriented than men, and they wanted this woman who had a son in the scouting program so there would be an emotional investment. It didn't take long for me to feel that emotional investment or to see how desperately things needed to be organized. Still, my ignorance of scouting has made me feel disconnected and somewhat panicked about what I am supposed to be doing (there really hasn't been any training thus far). But last month at our 8:00am Key Scouters Meeting (what the?!) I was in a room full of men with only one other woman who is the newly called Committee Chair. She just finished serving as the Young Women's President for the last 6 years and was in the Relief Society Presidency before that, she is the mother of 7 kids and is an inspiration to me. She led this Key Scouters meeting in such an efficient and spiritual way that I ended up being moved to tears twice and actually felt excited about scouting!
Fast forward to this morning for my 2nd ever Key Scouters meeting and 1st ever Board of Review. I was feeling like a fish out of water again and wasn't happy about it, but I felt the Spirit in our meeting and once again saw the importance of what Scouting is about (turning boys into good men through God), so I was grateful. Then an hour and a half later we had our 1st Board of Review (it was her first one too). We met with a 17 year old boy who was up for a rank advancement. We had him talk about the importance of scouting, what he has learned, what he hopes to accomplish and why it is important to him...we were in tears! The spirit was so strong in that room and I felt overwhelmed with gratitude that this boy (and all our boys) get to work with good men to make themselves better and to learn their duty to God and to Country.
I still don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm starting to understand why I'm doing it. It is unexpectedly spiritual and I love that.
4 comments:
Well, that's just cool!
(I definitely didn't have any experiences like that with cub scouts, but who knows? Maybe it was my attitude holding me back.)
Oh Jill, I love this! What a great experience! My husband went through the same thing...he was called as Scout Leader about 4 years ago and was not very excited. He struggled for the first month or so, went to some pretty awful meetings etc. But then things changed and he had a couple of amazing spiritual experiences watching these boys learn and grow. He was scout leader for 2 years and while it was frustrating at times, he is such an advocate of scouting now and has such a testimony of what it can do for these young men...and he always says that having good leaders makes all the difference! Those boys are lucky to have you in there with them!
I love this, too, Jill--the thing is that you always find these cool spiritual insights and it's because YOU are one of those impressive spiritual people that the rest of us look up to!
I just got called to be the cannery person. I wanted this calling bc it sounded like an easy gig. I'm hoping I get to have a similar experience!
Also--they scored getting you in that position!
I love reading about the lessons we learn when we least expect it. And who knew you'd learn it in scouts!
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