I started the Thursday Thoughts theme last week with first point of the Scout Law. This week, we take the second point, a scout is loyal.
Loyalty can be nuanced in meaning. Sure, most people are loyal to country, school, and family. One of the things we teach the boys in scouts is being loyal to yourself, and this is a more subtle, but still an important concept.
The way I interpret loyalty to self is being true to your nature. In other words, be yourself. Don’t force yourself into another person’s mold for you. That leads to unhappiness and a generally miserable existence.
It also has to do with understanding your own moral compass and refusing to do things that violate that personal code of ethics. How that is measured and decided will be as unique as every individual, but violating your own standards is the way to hurt people and cause them to lose faith in you or your abilities, or worse, your character.
Loyalty to self is, in many ways, the most important kind of loyalty there is, because all the other forms lead back to this core value.