When I was a little kid, both my parents worked, and my mom made most of our dinners.

One day after a particularly long day at her job, my mom serves us dinner that included a plate of burned biscuits.

As my mom was apologizing for burning the biscuits, by father reaches over, selects the most burned biscuit and proceeded to eat it, saying “I love burned biscuits”.

Later that night, I asked my dad if he really liked burned biscuits.  He gave me a hug, and said “your mom worked hard today, and still got food on the table for us as a family.  Burnt biscuits never hurt anyone, but harsh words and a lack of understanding certainly have”.

Life is full if imperfect things, and imperfect people.

All of us here as youth leadership, and adult volunteers are an excellent example of this.  Remembering to accept the faults and mistakes others make goes a long ways. 

Please pass me the plate of biscuits, I like the burnt ones too.

Like you, I’ve been watching the coverage of the hurricane on our Texas coast.  I wanted to share with you something I heard several years ago, from the late TV personality Fred Rogers. Someone asked him about young people and disaster news.

He said:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

Helpers, and caring people.  Do these words sound familiar to you as Scouts?

We can’t go down and pull people off roofs, but we can help.  There are thousands of people coming to DFW to stay in shelters while awaiting the fate of their homes.  Many of them are coming to stay in Irving.  These people need food, and other items to make these days easier.  We as a troop already do a good deal of work and service with Irving Cares, and they are accepting donations for evacuees that are staying in Irving.

This is a great way for us to do our part, and to remember we are *all* helpers.

While camping, we learn and practice ‘Leave No Trace’. We try to have as little impact on our environment as possible so others can enjoy them in the future. However, as hard as we try, we still leave a trace, even if it’s just some matted down grass or a broken twig.

The same holds true for the rest of life. Everywhere you go, everyone you meet, and everything you do leaves a trace. The question becomes what kind and how big of a trace will you leave?  If you are not kind to someone then that trace you left could take some time to heal.  If you lift someone’s spirits with a friendship, or by helping, then that can leave a trace that makes a positive lasting impact.

You may interact with a stranger for only a couple seconds or with your friends for a couple hours, but no matter what, you leave a trace. It’s up to you whether that trace that makes the world a worse or better place.  You may not think a simple ‘Hello’, ‘Thank You’ or even a friendly smile really makes any difference – but it does!

So, now the question comes to you.  What kind of trace in life will you leave?

Campout this weekend, and no surprise, it might rain.

The humorist Dave Barry said “It always rains on tents.  Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent”

So, here we are, camping, maybe in the rain.  The scout motto is “Be Prepared” if we do a good job preparing for the weather, we can still be cheerful in the rain.

This relates well to life.  It isn’t always sunny, but if we remember the scout motto relates to more than camping and we do a good job preparing for any potential problems, we can still be cheerful when things aren’t as smooth as we’d like in life.

Between Troops, Crews, Packs, Teams, Ships, Posts, and even Labs; there are about 3 million people currently registered on the Boy Scouts of America. While that may sound like a lot of people, it is less than one percent of the population of this country.

The World Scouting Organization estimates there are about 28 million people involved in Scouting around the globe.  That equals about 1/3 of one percent of the Earth’s population.

Suffice to say, we are part of a small group no matter how you look at it.

With that in mind, I have a great quote for you guys to take with you and think about this week:

From American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world; indeed, they’re the only people who ever have.”