I tried an experiment some years ago in making a blog that was going to be dedicated to my Scouting endeavors. Like so many other things, when i decided to put my focus on doing TESTHEAD, I decided to mothball that particular endeavor. I haven't looked at some of these things in years, but this week, as I was doing some "spring cleaning" on my blogs, I decided to look at this one again. I figured I'd rather not let these bits languish, and hey, who knows, they may well have a second life to them. So I'm going to, over the course of the next few days, present some of my old "Scoutmaster Minutes". These are things I would talk to my troop about after we finished our meetings, and they come from a number of different sources. Also, since the SummerQAmp initiative is now taking up a fair amount of my time, and the ages of the interns kinda' fits into the later Scouting and Venturing years, I figured they might be worthwhile to revisit for that purpose.
The Truth Will Set You Free?
Have you ever heard the phrase "The Truth Will Set You Free"? It's a
good phrase, and it's an accurate one, but I'm going to add a little bit
to that today. This quote has been attributed both to Werner Erhard
and to Gloria Steinem, but in either case, the meaning is the same
(modified from its original and paraphrased for the group :) ):
"The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will [Tick] You Off!"
Why
is it important that I share this modified quote with everyone?!
Because, again, it is accurate! We say that we want the truth, and we
want to be told the truth about things, but there are times when we
don't like to see or hear the truth, because it means we have to do
something we don't like, or we have to face up to a fact that we don't
appreciate, or in many cases (and I'm an authority on this one at times)
we have to own up to the phrase "I am an idiot" or perhaps more appropriately "I have been behaving like an idiot!"
To
be fair, everyone has moments where they have to face an uncomfortable
fact, or own up to a truth that they don't like, because it forces them
to see themselves in a light that's not always flattering. We as
individuals have the power to get where we want to go and succeed at
what we want to do. We get help along the way through friends, family,
church leaders, and our Heavenly Father through prayer, but ultimately,
none of those influences will get us where we want to be unless WE
get us where we want to be. Whenever any of us thinks "Oh, I wish I
could do this" or "Oh, I'm not able to do that" or "Oh, if only things
were different"...
STOP!!!
...
and ask yourself "Is that true?" If so, why is it true? 99 times out of
100 the answer is the person in the mirror. The truth is that we are
often READY and ABLE to do great things, but at the end of the day, it's the WILLING that's not there. When we take the willing and put it into ACTION, then honestly, anything is possible!
So
it's OK to face the truth about things, and it's OK to get angry about
what you see, because it means we are ready to confront the truth and
deal with it squarely. and then we are truly free, because we align
ourselves and out actions with the truth. I encourage everyone, youth
and adults alike... face your truth, get mad about it, decide to do
something about it, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT, and become free :).
Attribution: This minute was inspired by Larry Winget's book "Shut Up, Stop Whining and Get a Life"
No comments:
Post a Comment