Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Doing Your Best
January 30, 2007
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

At the end of every meeting, we recite the Scout Oath. Let me repeat the first 8 words: "On my honor, I will do my best". "On my honor" means you are making a promise. In fact, the Scout Oath is also called the Scout Promise. It is a promise to do your best. No one is judging you, trying to tell you what to do. You should be true to yourself, doing your best whenever you can, not just when you think it is important or when someone is looking.

Last Sunday, I got together with some of our newer scouts and our troop guides, to help them complete some of the Tenderfoot requirements. One of those requirements as you may recall, is to do some physical activities, like push ups, sit ups, and a 1/4 mile run. Then you need to repeat them a few weeks later and try to beat your first scores. Whenever we do this, there always seems to be some scout who figures out that he can "beat the system" by slacking off on the first round. Then it will be easy to beat his own score the second time around. Usually it is just said in jest and most of the time scouts try hard even the first time so they can see how hard they can push themselves and how well they can do. But it is certainly tempting to take the easy way out. Strictly speaking, you can still meet the requirements that way.

But you'll notice that there are no specific requirements. You don't have to do 100 sit ups, or 50, or even 5. You don't have to run the 1/4 mile in any specific amount of time. That's because one of the requirements to join Scouts and to earn the Scout badge (number 7 if you want to look it up) is to "Understand and agree to live by the Scout Oath" - an oath which includes doing your best. This doesn't just apply to Tenderfoot scouts of course, but to all ages and to all aspects of your life. School - did you study as hard as you could for that test or could you have done better? Family - are you as helpful to your family as you could be? When you get a job - are you doing the best that you can?

If you can honestly answer that you are doing your best, you'll find that other people will respect you. And perhaps more importantly, you'll respect yourself and will be proud of yourself.

Thanks for listening.