The Other Plan

I have spent the evening stewing after yet another Scout Court of Honor where my children were missing multiple awards. I have been thinking that if I were the bishop, I'd replace the Scoutmaster with someone who could do it right. If it were me (which it couldn't be, seeing as how it is kind of a gender-specific role), I would make sure that all of the boys got their Scoutmaster Conferences in the month before the Court of Honor. I would make sure that all of the records were updated in Troopmaster, and that all of the awards were picked up from the Scout Shop. Then, I wouldn't have to watch Brandon be disappointed for an entire year while his Boy Scout badge was not awarded to him, and also not get the merit badge he earned over the winter. I wouldn't have to watch Tristin be disappointed when he only got two out of three of his completed merit badges.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could just fire everyone and do it the right way myself?

After stewing over it for a few hours, I realized that this situation is similar to another situation, and that this plan is probably the wrong plan. Lucifer thought that forcing everything to go right would make Heavenly Father's children happy. But Heavenly Father knew that everyone needed to be tried and tested in order to progress. Everyone needed opportunities to grow through experiences like these. While I can't excuse the behavior of leaders who can't get their act together, they have to be given the opportunity to succeed or fail. Sometimes, failures affect the innocent. Heavenly Father doesn't shield us from the effects of the mistakes others make, but herein lies a test. How do we react?

I was tempted to go to the bishop and firmly suggest that these leaders get replaced, or my kids will join the other troop in Waconia. They've been screwing up the Boy Scout program nicely for two or three years now, so couldn't they be released? Aaron suggested we just let our feet do the talking. After Brandon checked out the awards on the table, and I confirmed that his was not being awarded tonight with another leader, Aaron asked Brandon if he wanted to sit through another Court of Honor, or go home? He chose going home. He had homework to finish, and he didn't really want to waste his evening. So Aaron took him home.

I suppose that these things will eventually straighten themselves out, and that he will be able to get his awards next time. But in the meantime, we won't be forcing our children to waste their time waiting for other people to get their acts together. If a patrol meeting is worthwhile, they will go to it. If not, they won't be forced to go. We've had enough of going to every single lousy meeting our church puts out just to support the program. We've had enough of supporting mediocrity.

Oh, another funny thing - Brandon had a 10 minute patrol meeting before he left, prior to the Court of Honor. They made him patrol leader. What's funny about that? There isn't another patrol meeting before he turns 12 and moves up a patrol.