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We pay yearly association fees where we live. These fees cover many things including the mowing of the easements and edging the sidewalks along our side street; we live on our corner. Recently our association hired a new lawn service company, and they have missed not only cutting the grass, but the edging the sidewalk for several weeks. My dear husband cut the easement and I got out and edged, manually, approximately 340 feet of creeping Bermuda on our sidewalk.

I had some neighborhood teenagers ask me why I was doing the edging when we pay for this service. That got me thinking about what are we teaching our kids. Yes, I could have called our association's office, filed a complaint, and waited another 7-10 days for cutting and edging to be done. But in that time, the grass would have gotten a lot longer and the sidewalks more overgrown. I did call the office last week about this issue and this time when the service showed up they cut and edged our easement, and did a wonderful job.

Like I said it got me thinking. Have you seen folks walking in retail stores and step over a piece of clothing that was knocked off a rack? I worked retail once and have heard customers say "That's the clerk's job to pick up things, not mine." Or how about those shopping carts at stores. The stores provide those corrals for the carts, we just have to push our carts to them. But how many parents feel that they have hired kids to get the carts from the lots, so why bother putting them there. Many of us shop with our children, and when we do these little indiscretions, then justify it by telling them about the hired help what are we teaching them?

As parents and leaders of our Cub Scouts WE are their Akelas (a good leader). Little things that we don't do because someone else is supposed to it, teaches our children and our Cubs lessons, although not good ones about responsibility and even pride and character.

We are building character in our Cub Scouts, so let's remember, even in every day tiny situations, our action or lack of it, will become a part of who they are.

Many Scouters sent me many quotes on Character. These quotes provide a way to talk about Character with your Cubs and to start a discussion.

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A friend of mine used to say that "Character is what makes you follow the Scout Oath and Law, even when no one is looking".

Online quotes http://www.dartmouth.edu/~lsevcik/quotes.html

The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
Thomas Babington Macauly

History is made at night. Character is what you are in the dark.
Lord John Whorfin

History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstance.
Donald Creighton

Every man has three characters: that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has.
Alphonse Karr (1808-1890)

Character is what you are in the dark,
attributed to Dwight L Moody's Sermons.

"Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking."
H. Jackson Browne

"The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
John Holt

"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out."
Thomas B. Macaulay

Character is what a person is in the dark

Character is more easily maintained than regained

The greatest power a person possesses is the power to choose.
J.M.Kohe

Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.
Charles de Gaulle

Character is much easier kept than recovered.
Thomas Paine

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.
Thomas Paine

Character is simply habit long continued.
Plutarch, Morals

Character is the ability to carry out a good resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.
Cavett Robert

What lies behind us and what lies in front of us pales in comparison to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

It takes a strong character not to be demoralized by either sudden success or failure.
Waite Phillips

A pat on the back oft times develops good character if administered often enough, hard enough, young enough and low enough.
Waite Phillips

We all make mistakes which, if admitted, adds to our judgement and strengthens our character. To deny or try to defend them produces the exact opposite results.
Waite Phillips

No one should boast of being honest, dependable, courteous and considerate for these are fundamental qualities essential to good character that everyone ought to develop and use.
Waite Phillips

"Prepare the child for the path, not the path for the child." "When I was growing up, many times I'd grumble at the chores I had to do. But my parents knew the chores being done weren't as important as the child being formed by doing them."
Karen Eiler

If anyone speaks badly of you, live so none will believe

A Scoutmaster is walking down the street one day when he notices a very small boy trying to press a doorbell on a house across the street. However, the boy is very small and the doorbell is too high for him to reach.

After watching the boy's efforts for some time, the Scoutmaster moves closer to the boy's position. He steps smartly across the street, walks up behind the little fellow and, placing his hand kindly on the child's shoulder leans over and gives the doorbell a ring.

Crouching down to the child's level, the Scoutmaster smiles benevolently and asks, "And now what, young man?" To which the boy turns and yells, "NOW WE RUN!"