The Scout Law: what does it mean?

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The Scout Law: what does it mean?

 

http://www.timesnews.net/community_article.php?id=415

 

Published 2006-07-27 16:23:38

By Kurt Stevenson

 

Warriors Path - A View of Scouting Through The Eyes of Scouts

 

Since 1910, Scouting has had several basic fundamentals. Lord Baden-Powell set up these principles to insure the integrity of Scouts everywhere. These are known in Scouting as the Scout Law, the Scout Motto and the Scout Oath

 

In this series of articles, we will examine the 12 points of the Scout Law, the Scout Motto, the Scout Oath and hear about lessons learned through Scouting from various members of the Warriors Path District Committee and from various books on Scouting and Lord Baden-Powell

 

The Scout Law states that a Scout is: Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

 

Let us first examine Trustworthy.

 

Webster's dictionary defines trustworthy as being worthy of confidence, dependable, trust,tried and reliable. Therefore someone that is considered trustworthy would be one that can be depended on and that you have placed your confidence in.

 

As stated in "The Scout Law in Practice": A Scout's honor is to be trusted. If he were to violate his honor by telling a lie, or by cheating, or by not doing exactly a given task, when trusted on his honor to do so, he may be directed to hand over his scout badge."

 

When we have thoroughly grasped the idea of honor itself, it becomes an easy matter to understand that "a scout's honor is to be trusted"; for we know that our honor is actually our sense of obligation to duty and to God. It is a debt that we owe which we can not fail to pay without losing everything that is worth while in life; for, according to the standard of men of honor, life without honor is not worth living -- not because it means disgrace or contempt in the eyes of men, but because it means that we feel ourselves to be dishonest and untrustworthy.

 

The faithful performance of our everyday duties, for no other reason than because it is right, will help us to be trustworthy in times of special trial.

 

It is not only the exact carrying out of orders which trustworthiness demands, but the spirit of initiative which will do a useful piece of work in intelligent anticipation of an order. This might, of course, be carried too far, but usually the living interest we take in our duty makes us intelligent in carrying it out.

 

There are men who seem incapable of this sort of initiative, although they can do very good work under direct orders. These are not trustworthy excepting under certain conditions; more trustworthy is the man who does not need to be watched, but who does his work faithfully from his own sense of duty.

 

Such is the timber of which patrol leaders and assistant scout masters are made, and, later on, foremen and superintendents and officials; but, even these may get their positions only because they are relatively better than the rank and file, without being really trustworthy in their hearts.

 

The really trustworthy man is he who in every case and in every detail would rather do right and lose, than do wrong for his own personal advantage. Our great president, Abraham Lincoln, was a man of this type, and we revere and love his memory not only for his great deeds as a statesman and leader, but for the trustworthiness which sprang out of his love for the right and his human affection for other men.

 

A deep trust in God, because God Himself is trustworthy, is the surest foundation of human courage; and no one is likely to trust in God unless he is trustworthy himself.

 

Whether a scout is standing watch on signal duty in war time, or whether he has been put in charge of a young child, to give his mother a chance for an outing and rest, or whether he be standing his watch at night as a sea scout on board ship, his obligation of honor is the same, and nothing on earth is an excuse for unfaithfulness. A scout is trustworthy.

 

For more information about Scouting and how to join, visit http://www.scbsa.org