The Scoutmaster Minute

A Scoutmaster minute that has been around for awhile, but drives home a beautiful lesson.
It fit well at tonight’s Troop meeting.

There once were two Indian Braves, these young men were best of friends, closer than brothers.
They lived in a peaceful village among the rest of their peaceful tribe.
One day the first brave saw his best friend courting a young women that he wanted to marry. This made the first brave angry. So he began to spread rumors about his friend. Rumors that discredited him and his family.
A few days later as the brave made his way through the village, he overheard the women of the village talking about the terrible things this brave had done. He continued through the village and again heard the stories that he had started with the rumor.
Hearing this, he began to feel terrible, his heart sank and he knew he had done wrong.
So the young brave went to the elder.. the Medicine man.
He asked the wise man if there was anything he could do to make things right.
The Medicine man told the brave to travel to highest peak and gather the feathers of the Eagle and return to the village.
So the brave set off on the journey. He traveled for days and climbed to the peak. He gathered the feathers of the Eagle as instructed and made his way back to the village.
When he returned, he showed the Medicine man the feathers and asked if he was forgiven.
The Medicine man told him, “Now take those feathers back to the highest peak and turn them loose to the four winds.”
The young brave did as he was told. He traveled for days and climbed to highest peak. Standing there he let the feathers fly. They blew to the four winds.
The brave returned to the village and once again asked the wise man if he was forgiven.
The Medicine man instructed him to now go and pick up all of the feathers.
The brave explained that it was impossible to retrieve the feathers.. they had blown to the four winds.
The wise man then told the young brave. “The feathers are like your words.. once they leave your mouth, they are blown to the four winds and can never be retrieved.”
You must watch what you say, for out of your mouth comes blessings and cursing…
A Scout is clean. And the words that come from his mouth should be clean also. They should also speak truth and remain loyal.
The Medicine man then told the brave that only he who had been hurt could forgive. Go and speak kind words and you may be forgiven.

We should all take heed to this lesson. So many times we get carried away in gossip and rumor. Remember that like the feathers our words fly into the wind and can not be retrieved.

Happy Scouting!!