Scoutmaster's Minute & Coach's Corner
as part of a Mountain Top Experience

"Someone has said, 'The longer I live, the more deeply I am convinced that that which makes the difference between one man and another, between the weak and the powerful, the great and the insignificant, is desire, invincible determination, the purpose once formed and then death or victory.'

"When Sir John Hunt stood at the foot of Mount Everest, he did not expect his team of mountain climbers to reach its summit by some sort of magic or in one leap. He had mapped the climb by stages, one day at a time. Each day the men ascended as far as they had planned for that day. The morning that two members of his party, Hillary and Tenzing, finally stepped upon the summit was the climax of many days' effort. The last step was the crowning one of many arduous steps to the top.

"What you set out to do this morning may not seem as difficult or spectacular as climbing Mount Everest, but you must apply the same principle. You must go step by step, with full desire and energy focused on the end you seek. Such is the law of success in every sphere of life. Why should it not be so in the building of a righteous life? 'And blessed are all they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be fillled with the Holy Ghost.' This challenging principle becomes ever more vivid when we study the conditions of Palestine and learn of the severe physical hunger and thirst that are experienced in that semidesert land." (Conference Report, October 1968, pages 52-53)