I Can Sleep When The Wind Blows

When I was a boy I went camping with my grandfather, Carlon Hinton. He was a retired farmer who loved to tell stories from his farm life in Arizona. My cousins and I huddled close around the campfire, with the wind howling behind us, as we listened to our grandfather tell about hiring a new ranch hand...

I owned 10 sections of land just south of the airport at Luke Air Force Base west of Phoenix, Arizona. One day I found that I needed some help managing all of the cows, cotton, and corn that I had planted, so I put an advertisement in the newspaper for a farm foreman. Over the next couple of days I had several people call on me to request employment, but most of the men decided that the job was too much work and decided not to start. One man in particular captured my attention when he came to me and said, "Carlon, I can sleep when the wind blows." This statement struck me as odd, but I needed the help so I hired him on the spot. After several weeks of training, followed by a much-needed vacation on my part, I returned home during a great storm. It was one of those Arizona monsoons, a blow the doors off the barn kind of wind storm! I immediately went to my new ranch hand's house and knocked on his window: tap tap tap, then Pound Pound Pound, then BANG BANG BANG! After several minutes of pounding a very annoyed foreman came to the door and ask what I needed. I said, "Can you not hear the wind? Do you not see the rain? We need to get the chickens and the cows in and close the barn doors with bolts to keep them safe against this storm!" My new foreman put his hand on my shoulder and calmly said, "Remember, I can sleep when the wind blows." I told him I was not concerned with his sleeping habits, I was concerned with my farm! He explained that he could sleep when the wind blew because he lived by the motto, "Be Prepared." He always closed up the barn and bolted the doors and was prepared for a storm every time he left the farm. That was how he could sleep when the wind blew. 

My cousins and I were mesmerized by this story and wondered what we could do to be able to sleep when the wind blew. After a few minutes of silence, one of my cousins finally asked, "Grandpa, how can we be prepared?" If you knew my grandfather, you would know that he was a great scoutmaster and this was exactly the response he was hoping for. He quoted the Scout Oath and Scout Law to us, then told us that we needed to "be prepared" for a mission, a righteous temple marriage, and that we needed to prepare to be the leaders of our generation by studying the leaders of previous generations.

I will be forever grateful to my grandfather for teaching me how to "sleep when the wind blows." 

Helaman 5:12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Help Other People at All Times

Tonight my family and I had the opportunity to serve an older couple in our neighborhood. It was not something that we were asked to do. We were thinking about what to do for Family Home Evening when my oldest daughter suggested that a couple in the neighborhood needed their lawn mowed. So, we voted on it as a family and then headed over to their house.

After completing most of the yard work, our neighbor came home and surprised us by giving big hugs and kisses for a job well done!

My question tonight is, what does the line in the Scout oath which says, "to help other people at all times," really mean? Can we really help other people ALL the time? How do we possibly do this and still accomplish anything else in life? 

I guess the real question is, how can we instill in our young people a sense of service and the idea of helping other people at all times?

Obviously I am a big believer in The Boy Scouts of America and the values this organization teaches to both the youth and adults who participate. But what is the best method for taking those ideals of Scouting and instilling them into the next generation? I believe this happens as our youth see the ideals of the Scout Oath and Law personified in their adult leaders and parents who are living these ideals day to day in everything they do. And then our youth need to be held accountable to live those ideals by parents, leaders, and society in general.

What methods do you use as leaders of the next generation to instill the value of helping other people at all time into your youth?