The Boy Scouts of America

Last Sunday as Boy Scout Sunday. Tony and Dominyk have each had their try at Boy Scouts, and have failed. Their special needs are too great for them to function in that kind of a program. But our church sponsors an excellent troop and once a year they have a worship service.

There are 12 boy scout laws and they recite them at least twice during the service. During the first part of the service they read through them and Dominyk was sitting next to me.

They recited:

a Boy Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

and Dominyk, after each word, turned to me, giggled, and said, "nope, nope, nope, nope...." all twelve times.

Later in the service, they did the Boy Scout Laws again, this time lighting a candle for each of the 12 laws. The reader would say, "A boy scout is trustworthy." And a candle was lit. "A boy scout is loyal" Second candle. "A boy scout is helpful" Third candle. Getting the picture?

Since Bart didn't have to preach he sat next to me, directly behind by far, the BEST Scout Master a troop could ask for. The scout lighting the candle, I think somewhere between courteous and kind, dropped the candle and my husband whispered, a bit too loudly, "A boy scout is clumsy." We were in the third pew and I got the giggles so bad I'm sure half the church saw me.

The final cause for laughter in the service wasn't caused by a Fletcher, but was so cute. The scout who was reading the scripture finished the scripture and said, "The Word of the Lord" and the congregation responded, "Thanks be to God." He then turned back to his sheet and read, "The congregation will say, "Thanks be to God" and you can go sit down."