The Boy Scout Oath.  My childhood consisted of many activities, one of the more enjoyable ones was scouting. I started as a little Tiger Cub and worked my way up to Boy Scout. I learned many valuable lessons, memorized oaths, promises, mottos, etc…many of which carry value all through life. Thus, I will be doing a series on the Boy Scout Handbook, highlighting aspects that I believe still can apply to our lives today!

Today's topic is the Boy Scout Oath. Here's the oath:

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Great stuff. Very simple, yet there's a lot of meaning in there. Honor, God, country….helping others, physical fitness, awareness, morality. That's quite a lot to ask of someone, especially a kid.

However, it provides some leniency: "I will do my best". It's not "I WILL DO these things", just "I will do my best", because that's all you can really ask of anyone. Life is a process of doing tasks, and realizing that you cannot control the results.  Yet you do the tasks just the same, over and over, day by day, and life rewards you over time.

So I ask this of you. Are YOU doing your best to do all of these things? Are you maintaining high integrity? Are you always looking to help others? Are you staying in shape so that you can better achieve these things? Are you keeping your eyes open and your ear to the ground while you're doing your daily tasks? It's a strong challenge, but definitely something to strive to achieve! (fyi, I didn't forget about it mentioning the Scout Law, we'll get to that next time!)

For now, comment below on what you're doing each day to live the Boy Scout Oath.  What simple things are you doing to help others?  To stay in shape?  To stay aware?  Perhaps you have ideas that can help others, and thus enact even more of the oath by simply commenting.

 

About the author:  John Hays is a super friendly web developer, photographer, and health & fitness coach using products like P90X, Insanity, TurboFire, and Shakeology to help people get in the best shape of their lives.  His proven methods of personal accountability and constant support have helped people see major life changes.  John's photography has been seen in numerous publications, and he has worked with such web clients as Jack Daniel's, Mission Tortillas, Joe's Crab Shack, Conoco/Phillips and many more.