Summer. What does “summer” bring to mind for you? For me, one related word is camp. And when I think of camp, several stories come to mind. While I had some camp adventures of my own that might show up here someday, two of my favorite stories come from other people’s pens.

“That’s just it,” Molly said. “The game sounded like fun when Miss Butternut explained it at dinner. But you should have seen Dorinda at our team’s meeting. As soon as she was chosen captain, she started calling us the Blue Army. And she was so serious! She acted like the general of a real army.” ~Molly Saves the Day  by Valerie Tripp, pg. 14

Molly’s forebodings are validated when she realizes that the camp game of Color War (Capture the Flag) strains her friendship with Linda who is on the Red Team. To what length will Molly go to win? Will the winning be worth it?

Meanwhile, in another part of history (literarily speaking), Connie hopes to leave her troubles at home while she’s at camp. However, she soon finds herself in even more trouble when she competes in a “Prank War” with a mysterious, brainy boy named “Goggles”. When “Goggles” learns Connie’s secrets, will he use them against her to win the war or will he help her out?

Have you ever been in a situation like Molly and Goggles? Whether it’s a game with friends, a team sport, some contest or even a promotion at work, we have to decide, is winning worth it? Sometimes we may see winning as coming out on top of the competition. But what if there’s something bigger going on? What if the real challenge is to do the right thing, even if it means losing the game? Is that a challenge worth winning?

For Molly, winning is worth facing one of her biggest fears…and making Linda face one of hers! Happily, the friends make up at the end and decide that they’d rather not be Reds or Blues anymore. I think Molly wins the most important battle – the battle to forgive, be forgiven and be a good friend. And what about Goggles and Connie? Well, I’d hate to spoil it for you. You can hear the whole story called the “The Champ of the Camp” from the team at Adventures in Odyssey. 

On a much bigger scale, countries have to decide whether winning is worth it, too. At Camp Gowonagin, Molly uses what she knows of the D-Day invasion to help her team capture the flag. Today is the 71st anniversary of D-Day. Wars are complex, but I think I can wholeheartedly say I’m thankful that the WWII Allies’ soldiers thought winning was worth it.