It has been quite a while. I have been very busy with travel, meeting new friends and establishing new relationships that will ultimately benefit the American Heritage Girls. While on the road, I thought...how cool to have a regular girl guest blogger? One who could journal her life experiences though the lens of her AHG experience. And then, as God does so often, I "fell" upon a blog by an amazing young lady. Her spirit, her enthusiasm, her love for God and her talent made quite an impression on me. And so, through the grace of God and the gentleness of her spirit, I present to you the first official AHG girl guest blogger - Miss Sarah Peterson!!
This year I had an amazing opportunity to go to NY with my church for a mission’s trip. If you want to read about it you can go to my personal blog stepbystep356.blogspot.com to learn more about it. I don’t know if many people realize how AHG helped prepare me for that trip. There were three different areas where it helped:
1. Board of Reviews. Many (if not all) of the older AHG girls will know exactly what I am talking about. You on one side of a table, some adults on the other side. They asked you questions about AHG: about what you liked, what you learned, how it helped you grow, etc. Since I was a second year patriot I had just gone through one to get my Dolly Madison Award. Well for the missions trip we also had to go through something like that. See, we had taken these classes about different spiritual things to help us on the trip and before we were for sure going on the trip some adults were going to interview us about those things (to make sure we knew what they had talked about and to see if we were prepared). It was very similar to the BOR! You on one side, adults on the other side of the table! So going through all those BOR over the years, really gave me a confidence in myself and that I knew what I was talking about. It was a great experience to learn how to talk in front of adults! Why would that be helpful? Job interviews, giving speeches in class, and just in general having the right kind of confidence.
2. Little kids. Of course, as being the oldest girl in our
AHG troop, little girls look up to me and my fellow patriots. Also being one of
the oldest, we have had many, many opportunities to teach. What comes with
teaching and playing games with little girls? Crowd control! ;) You really need
to learn to keep them entertained, look up to you as a leader, but still have a
blast while you are doing it. This definitely helped on the trip to NY because
we were working with younger kids in a day camp. Because you were older they
looked up to you. I don’t know if I would have known how to control some of the
kids and situations without AHG. We had a blast hanging with these kids and we
kept them safe, entertained and made sure they knew you were the boss. But we
did it in such a loving manner (like in AHG) that the kids respected you, but
also viewed you as a confidant and a friend :)
3. Servant leader. This is something that I have learned
mostly this past year. Since being the “leader’s daughter” and one of the
oldest, I was always pushed into a leadership position ever since I was eight!
But this past year I learned how to be a servant leader. What do I mean by
that? Well think of it this way: When you hear the word “leader” what comes to
mind? Bossy…strict…self-centered? Well who was/is the leader we should be
looking up to and taking after? Jesus Christ! Mark 10:43-45 says “But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader
among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be
the slave of everyone else. For even the Son
of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a
ransom for many.” Isn’t that amazing?! Jesus could have come to earth as a
leader. But instead He came here as a servant! (Now, I’m not saying He didn’t
lead people, but I think you get my point: He put others first.) This AHG year we
did this in one of our activities: a Mother/Daughter Spa Night. Do you know
what we older girls did? Served. We didn’t do ANY of the activities. We were
behind the booths helping the other girls and moms with them. Did we miss out?
Some may think so, but I looked at it this way: Those little girls had the time
of their lives, and we got to help them :) Of course on a missions trip you had
to put others first. That was why we were taking a week out of our busy lives
and going! So AHG helped me be prepared to serve.
That was just a glimpse of what AHG has
helped me accomplish. And I still have two more years to go! :) I pray that all
girls would be able to be in AHG and have the wonderful experiences that I have
had.
God bless and until next time,
Sarah K. Peterson
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