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Everyone has trouble making the right choice.
Spiritual Fitness is a new program to help people make the right choices.
Rear Adm. Brent Scott, the 19th Chaplain of the Marine Corps met with a group of chaplains and religious program specialists at the main Protestant Chapel on Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, March 10.
During the meeting, Scott discussed the next steps for implementing the program.
"Spiritual Fitness is built on three elements, faith, morals and values," said Scott. "The goal of Spiritual Fitness in the end is to make a Marine stronger and more resilient. How we get there is through the spiritual fitness engagement strategy where we’re helping Marines understand the values as they are being developed. Whether it’s at boot camp, corporals course, sergeants course or whether it’s at officer candidate school, we can help them understand the importance of faith and moral values wherever they’re being developed as a leader."
Spiritual Fitness is currently being tested in Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, where Scott spent time with recruits to see what helps motivate them through difficult situations.
At the depot, small notebooks that contain short stories of present day Marines are given to recruits to see how it impacts their training and whether or not it helps them understand the values.
"In boot camp they instill character and the importance of integrity, they make you want to be a better Marine," said Scott. "You changed at boot camp, you were made stronger, but how do you keep that in a Marine’s life throughout their career? What Spiritual Fitness gets at is sustaining the transformation by helping them see the importance of faith in their life and believing in something other than themselves, in things, in people and even in God."
A person doesn’t need to be religious to participate in Spiritual Fitness. The program plans to be accessible to everyone.
"Whether people realize it or not they were already practicing a certain amount of spiritual fitness," said Petty Officer 1st Class Joseph Jedding, lead petty officer for 2nd Marine Division, Division Chaplains Office. "Misery loves company, when you’re out in the field; it’s raining, you’re embracing that suck, you’re working with the person to the left or right of you and you’re putting your faith in them. That is the reason you train. You go to deployment and if stuff goes down you’ve got the person to the left and right of you. That’s that faith we’re talking about."
| Date Taken: | 03.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2017 20:42 |
| Story ID: | 227665 |
| Location: | NC, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Being spiritually fit in the Corps, by Sgt Juan Madrigal, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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