THOUGHTFUL ITEMS FOR SCOUTERS

Thanks to Scouter Jim from Bountiful, Utah, who prepares this section of Baloo for us each month.  You can reach him at bobwhitejonz@juno.com or through the link to write Baloo on www.usscouts.org.   CD

Roundtable Prayers

CS Roundtable Planning Guide

“Lord, guide us this holiday season with knowledge and enlightenment of the world around us.  May we be uplifting to all.  Guide our thoughts and action, we pray, Amen.”

Sam Houston Area Council

This month we celebrate Your gifts in many ways. May Your light shine on us as we celebrate our diversity. Let us remember that we share a common bond through You. Amen.

Lights on the Hill

Scouter Jim, Bountiful UT

This month’s theme, Holiday Lights, suggests a more festive theme than the nature of my comments this month.  But I feel the direction I have chosen will illuminate itself quickly enough.

Lives of great men all remind us, we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time.  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While he was still a United State Senator, John F. Kennedy wrote the book, Profiles in Courage, which highlighted the lives of some men he considered great and courageous.  

In the State of the Union Address given  January 29, 1991, President George H. W. Bush gave the following quote:

We have within our reach the promise of renewed America. We can find meaning and reward by serving some purpose higher than ourselves—a shining purpose, the illumination of a thousand points of light. It is expressed by all who know the irresistible force of a child's hand, of a friend who stands by you and stays there—a volunteer's generous gesture, an idea that is simply right.

President Bush not only issued a call to service, but he headed his own call.  After Hurricane Katrina he teamed with President Bill Clinton to raise funds for the victims.  There are many men and women among us of valor and courage.  Men and women who give many hours and much of their talent and resources in the service of others.

This month is a great time to introduce our Scouts to the shining lights of Scouting.  This month is a great time to introduce the boys to Robert Baden-Powell,  William D. Boyce,  Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and James E. West.  Here is a link for resource information: http://www.scouting.org/Media/FactSheets/02-211.aspx

Help each boy beginning writing their own Profiles in Courage, and introduce them to men and women of courage and valor as we help them become a light set upon a hill.

14 You are the light of the world.  A city on a hill cannot be hidden..

15  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

16  In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew Chapter 5, verses 14-16, Holy Bible, New International Version

Quotations

Quotations contain the wisdom of the ages, and are a great source of inspiration for Cubmaster’s minutes, material for an advancement ceremony or an insightful addition to a Pack Meeting program cover

Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?  Maurice Freehill

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. 
Chinese Proverb

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.  Ben Sweetland

There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.  Edith Wharton

Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you.  Maori Proverb

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.  The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.  Felix Adler

Dare to reach out your hand into the darkness, to pull another hand into the light.  Norman B. Rice

Light is good from whatever lamp it shines. 
Author Unknown

For light I go directly to the Source of light, not to any of the reflections.  Peace Pilgrim

Alas! must it ever be so?
Do we stand in our own light, wherever we go,
And fight our own shadows forever?
Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.  Earl Nightingale

Nothing in the universe can travel at the speed of light, they say, forgetful of the shadow's speed.  Howard Nemerov

I will love the light for it shows me the way.  Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.  Og Mandino

An age is called "dark," not because the light fails to shine but because people refuse to see it.  James Michener

Sam Houston Area Council

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. Dr. Seuss

So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth. Bahá'u'lláh

May the lights of Hanukkah usher in a better world for all humankind. Unknown

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth. Mohammed Ali

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life. Buddha

Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening's forehead o'er the earth,
And add each night a luster till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth.
Emma Lazarus

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light. Felix Adler

A Prayer for the Children

Capital Area Council

We pray for children

   who put chocolate fingers everywhere,

   who like to be tickled,

   who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants,

   who sneak popsicles before supper,

   who erase holes in math workbooks,

   who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those

   who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,

   who can't bound down streets in a new pair of sneakers,

   who never "counted potatoes,"

   who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead,

   who never go to the circus,

   who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children

   who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,

   who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish,

   who hug us in a hurry and forget lunch money,

   who cover themselves in Band-Aids and sing off-key,

   who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,

   who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those

   who never get dessert,

   who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,

   who watch their parents watch them die,

   who can't find any bread to steal,

   who don't have any rooms to clean up,

   whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,

   whose monsters are real.

We pray for children

   who spend their allowance before Tuesday,

   who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at food,

   who like ghost stores,

   who shove dirty clothes under the bed,

       and never rinse out the tub,

   who get visits from the tooth fairy,

   who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,

   who squirm in church and scream in the phone,

   whose tears we sometimes laugh at

       and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those

   whose nightmares come in the daytime,

   who will eat anything,

   who have never seen a dentist,

   who aren't spoiled by anybody,

   who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,

   who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children

   who want to be carried and
   for those who must,
   for those we never give up on and
   for those who don't get a second chance.
   for those we smother

   and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind

      enough to offer it.