I have been trying to get my Venturing crew to have more weekend activities. I mean, what good is Venturing if you don't do stuff? Since our yearly calendar fell apart (we really need to do better with our presidency meetings) and we haven't finalized our new calendar, we've kind of been coasting. I suggested we do something for a weekend activity this month and the boys decided a hike would be a good thing to do.
We had planned to do a relatively short hike--maybe 2 miles round trip--but at least we'd be out doing something. We scheduled the day, planned to grill some burgers for lunch while we were up there, and got ready. But something unexpected happened. Nobody showed up.
I found out later that two of the boys got new jobs and had to work, a third hurt his ankle and couldn't go. One decided he needed to do homework, or something like that. One just didn't want to go, and one, who wasn't there when we planned the activity, was never told about it.
Maybe it's my fault--I did volunteer to lead this activity. Maybe I didn't do enough. But whatever the reason, the activity fell through.
But it didn't turn out all bad. I ended up taking my wife and daughter. We didn't do the hike, but we did go up and have lunch, and we had a wonderful afternoon together as a family. I realized that I should be doing that kind of thing with them more often. It really was great.
So, on Sunday, when I found out what happened to all the boys, I told them it was okay. In fact, I had such a wonderful day with my family that I actually thanked them for not coming. I hope that was an okay thing to do.
Everything happens for a purpose. I am glad you got some family time out of it. I have been including my children in my Scouting calling more and more. I want them to see why Dad is always gone.
ReplyDeleteDo you think because the boys didn't take ownership of planning the outing is why they didn't show up?
That may be part of it, but I think it mostly turned out to be bad timing. This particular activity didn't take much planning. Even so, they decided which trail to hike and when to meet, which day, etc. We gave assignments (through our crew president) for stuff to bring for lunch, but that's about all we needed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your implication, however, that if they take ownership they are more likely to show up and participate. I've seen that happen. I think this one was just a bad day for it.
The great thing about the Lord is that he can take this activity that didn't "work" and turn it into time with the family. The Lord is great in that way! I often need to be reminded that I am not the one in charge and instead of relying on my own hand I need to rely on His Hand.
ReplyDeleteI thought this morning about your "sloth" post as I was studying Preach My Gospel and they discusses "slothfulness".
By the way, our Team has failure miserably with the best and well laid out plans.
ReplyDelete