Almost cried at church. Again.

Or, as an alternate title to the story: "How the Bishop and I Ended Up in the Ladies' Room Together"

A month or so ago, the cub scout pack leader asked if I wanted to teach the kids how to use pocketknives at our next pack meeting. Show 15+ kids ages 7-10 how to carve with knives and then let them have at it? Sure! Sounds like LOTS of fun. The scary thing is, that was my honest attitude.

Tonight was the big night. We do the regular opening- flag ceremony, awards, etc. Then, the pack leader announces that I'm taking the kids outside to carve soap, and the adults will all stay inside and have a meeting.

I was a teensy bit nervous to be doing it alone because a bunch of boys, their siblings, pocketknives, and soap can be a dangerous combination.

Things were going smoothly. The boys seemed properly impressed on how to use a knife safely. I handed out soap and let them go to town. I had three little girls around me, age 8 or so. I offered to carve them something into their soap, as I wasn't sure if their parents wanted them to use a knife.

One little girl kept begging me to let her carve herself. She is a very cautious, good girl. Her older brother was a cub scout of mine, and he was always perfectly behaved as well. If she was my child, I would let her carve. So, I decided to let her.

She was doing remarkably well, so I took my attention off her a little to see how everyone else was doing. She suddenly said, "I don't want to do this any more", and got up hurriedly.

Of course I immediately knew something was wrong, so I run over. Sure enough, she's cut her finger. Not bad enough to need stitches, but bad enough to think about consider the idea. She bled all over the place. So, I had to leave everyone outside alone while I rushed her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up. She was extremely upset about it. Lucky for both of us, her dad (the bishop) happened to be hovering by the door, so I got his attention, and he got his wife, and they joined me in the bathroom to clean her up.

She went home with her mom to get some special tape to seal up the wound.

Honestly, I felt so awful about the whole thing. I came soooooo close to crying over it, but managed to hold back. This little girl is just the sweetest little thing, and I felt responsible for her getting hurt.