A Guiding Life

There are 3 parts to the promise in Guiding. The 3 leaves of the trefoil and the 3 fingers of our salute are reminders of these.

But sometimes it can be confusing about what the 3 parts are.

The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) website talks about the promise this way:

The Original Promise and Law were developed at the beginning of the Movement’s history. The Promise and Law continues to evolve as Member Organisations modernise Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting in their countries.

On my honour, I promise that I will do my best:
1. To do my duty to God and the King (Or God and my country);
2. To help other people at all times;
3. To obey the Guide Law

Although each member organisation of WAGGGS has its own version of the Promise, they all include the same three basic parts as laid down by our Founder, Lord Baden-Powell.
The promise in the UK would break down as

I promise that I will do my best:
1. To be true to myself and develop my beliefs, To serve the Queen and my community,
2. To help other people
3. To keep the (Brownie) Guide Law.

Although, I wonder if serving my community doesn't fall more under helping people to be honest, so perhaps it would also be fair to say it could break down as:

1. be true to myself and develop my beliefs,
2. serve the Queen and my community, help other people
3. keep the (Brownie) Guide Law.

What is totally fundamental is that keeping the Guide Law is the 3rd part of the 3 part promise and not an add on to the end. Those Laws are key to living the promise and the original vision. They also facilitate the aim of Guiding:

"The aim of guiding is to help girls and young women develop emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually, so that they can make a positive contribution to their community and the wider world."

The laws:

The Guide Law (for Guides, The Senior Section and adults) is:

A Guide is honest, reliable and can be trusted.
A Guide is helpful and uses her time and abilities wisely.
A Guide faces challenge and learns from her experiences.
A Guide is a good friend and a sister to all Guides.
A Guide is polite and considerate.
A Guide respects all living things and takes care of the world around her.

The Brownie Guide Law is:

A Brownie Guide thinks of others before herself and does a Good Turn every day.

These are definitely the third part of the 3 part promise, no matter which way you choose to mix the other two.

First published 2nd Feb 2014, republished Feb 2020 - because it's important!

Girlguiding Midlands went large this year for Thinking day.

Our local county put on buses with multiple pick up points to keep the costs right down for each unit so as many could go as possible. And 13,500 girls headed to the NEC Birmingham for a day of fun.

I went with a local Brownie unit.

When we first arrived the queues were stacked up to get in but they soon moved through and the wonderful thing about Guiding is everyone cares about each other and does as instructed; so groups wait for others to pass through so they aren't split up, everyone huddles to avoid cold, and hustles the shuffle when the rain starts.

Most of the male toilets had been 'redesigned' to be female loos. so with a quick loo stop despite the numbers there and a cup of tea in hand we headed into the first of the 4 large activity halls that was on our first time slot.

There were so many activities I can't list them all but amongst them were trampolines, rollerskating, 3 sizes of climbing walls, including a moving one, zorbing, inflatable assault courses, huge bouncy slides, bouncy castles - never ending activities. You couldn't possibly do even a small amount of what was there in the time we had before heading to the next hall.

We did CPR and visited an ambulance.

Built a tank with the army

And fired balls at other tanks.

The 3rd hall was a huge fairground with loooooong queues for the rides but they all got a ride or two.

And finally the Silent Disco - the girls wear head phones with 3 channels of music to choose from but sometimes the popular records clearly took over the hall and the singing was loud!

And of course we renewed our promises

This was an amazing day all organised and run by volunteers - never forget that every person that makes this happen is not paid, we give our time freely to give girls these incredible experiences.

It really was a very special day and I can't thank the Midlands team and every volunteer enough for giving me and the girls so much fun.