The Character House

This is the advisers minute that I gave to the OA Chapter on Monday night. This is one of my favorite "Scoutmaster Minutes".

Does anybody know what happened around 1910?

That’s right, that’s when the Boy Scouts of America was founded.

Another thing happened in 1910. That’s about the time that Ralph Moody moved from New Hampshire to Colorado. He was about your age then.

His family had just gotten a new horse, and he wanted real bad to drive her. His father was gone for the day, so he lied to his sister telling her that his dad wanted him to use the horse to haul railroad ties home for fire wood. When his sister told his Mother, he stuck to his story reasoning that if I’m going to get a spanking, I might as well have some fun. And besides, if I get it done, father will be proud of me and not spank me.

Well, things didn’t work out too well, and when it was almost dark Ralph decided that he had better come clean with his mother. He reasoned if she spanks me, then Father won’t, and she doesn’t spank as hard as he does.

His mother just gasped when he told her, and she made him stand with his nose in a corner until his father came home.

I’ll let Ralph tell you the rest of the story:

“Hard as Father could spank, he never hurt me so much with a stick as he did when Mother stopped talking. He cleared his throat, and then he didn’t make a sound for at least two full minutes.

When he spoke, his voice was deep and dry, and I knew that he must have been coughing a lot on the way home. “Son, there is no question but what the thing you have done today deserves severe punishment. You might have killed yourself or the
horse, but much worse than that, you have injured your own character. A man’s character is like his house. If he tears boards off his house and burns them to keep himself warm and comfortable, his house soon becomes a ruin. If he tells lies to be able to do the things he shouldn’t do but wants to, his character will soon become a ruin. A man with a ruined character is a shame on the face of the earth.”

Scouts, listen to the words of Ralph’s Father. What kind of character house do you have?