(Have three handkerchiefs—one crumpled and soiled, one clean but not ironed, and one clean and ironed.)
Being clean and unspoiled seems like a simple thing, doesn’t it? But it’s really one of the toughest assignments in our Scout Law. Think of what a soiled handkerchief goes through in order to be clean. (Hold up the soiled handkerchief.) It gets scalded in hot water. It gets soaked in harsh soap suds and strong bleach. It gets scrubbed or tumbled around roughly in a washing machine. Then it gets thrown around in a hot clothes dryer until it’s dry. And then, the worst torture of all, it gets flattened out under a heavy, hot iron. But then when all that’s done, the handkerchief looks like this, clean and unspotted. (Hold up the clean, ironed handkerchief.)
We must be willing to go through something like that if we are to be clean and unspotted. Turning your back on everything dirty is not as simple as it sounds. It often means making yourself unpopular with some people. Not going along with the crowd can be mighty rough. Or, if you have done wrong, it’s extremely painful to admit what you’ve done and try to make it right again, to ask forgiveness. But these are the trials that purify. You see, the tough treatment in the laundry of life can help you to be clean—if you can take it.
How about it? Will you settle for being unsoiled, like this? (Hold up the clean, but unironed, handkerchief.) Or would you like being clean, orderly, and unspotted, like this? (Hold up the clean, ironed handkerchief again.) A Scout is clean.
