On my Honor, I will try

The Girl Scout Promise
On my honor, I will try:

To serve God

and my country,

To help people at all times,

And to live by the Girl Scout Law

So this is what came into my mind to share today. For some unknown reason when I was thinking of what profound prayer, quote, music lyric or thought I could share today the "Girl Scout Promise" came into my mind. It has been decades since I was a Girl Scout and yet when I "googled and saw the words come up on the page they sounded strangely familiar. How seriously this promise was taken by a skinny long-legged redhead in fourth grade. I would hold up my three fingers and recite the words with such conviction. I could serve God, I learned how to do that in Sunday School...check. and my Country????? that confused me.... to help other people at all times... sure I could do that and live by the Girl Scout Law... well that is another blog subject, but seriously, it was about living with honesty and integrity and conviction...I could do that too. To be a Girl Scout meant that you got to wear your green uniform to school, and exhibit your sash that sported all of the badges you had earned. Badges for things like "Hiking", "Cooking", "Citizenship" and the list went on and on. Each badge had a list of requirments and writing to support your endeavors. Lets also not forget camp... 5th Grade Girl Scout Camp in Brainerd MN. We took an overnight canoe trip and I did not heed the caution of our trusted leaders to keep my shoes on, stepped on a peice of glass and almost cut my pinky toe off. I would have left it hang there in the little puddle of blood but Barbie my camp partner started to cry and insisted that I tell the counselors. As you can imagine they were not so happy and had to canoe me back into town to get stitches. The remainder of camp I wore a baggie on my foot to keep it dry. Then there was the cookie sales...which I am convinced gave me my beginning in sales. Girl Scouts were good! It taught me about the world around me, about achievement and accomplishment and to be a part of a community. In the Girl Scout Promise it only required that we try. Try to serve God and our Country and others. In asking that we just be aware and that we attempt to live in this way it helped me recognize my imperfection and the lesson was in that attempt to try.