----->HERE YOUR ANSWER <------
SERVICE above self means a lot to different people. Some people maybe in the Police, Fire Service, doctors, soldiers and many more have different ideas about what service above self means to them. But I am going to talk about what it means to me.
I believe that service above self means helping somebody else before you help yourself. This could be something as small as offering somebody else the first selection out of a box of chocolates before yourself, risking the one you prefer or something as big as givving your life for your country.
Whether it be big or small, these people are heroes in their own right, thinking of something or somebody else before themselves.
I personally do this every day, for example picking my brother up from school or doing work for my young enterprise company when I could be having fun. Everybody does service before self in their everyday lives, which would mean an idealistic world although everybody commits the opposite, self service. I will admit, I am not perfect and I do do selfish things, and so do most people. Service before self would lead to and idealistic world with no violence or bullying or anything bad in the world. A lot of the time self service means thinking two steps ahead of what you are doing. Say if we start a war, millions maybe killed, even though we may get what we want, we should use a diplomatic solution, as not to cause mass destruction or a war.
In my opinion service above self is one of the most important things a person can do. In the group cubs (before Scouts) part of the promise one must take is "think of others before myself" and also in the law is "help other people". In many other rule books or promises made by army men or 999 services is something that says to help other people in some way. The idea of scouting is to do a good deed every day. Serve before self is the way to achieving this goal. I believe that service before self means that you think one step ahead and think before you do something and consider how my actions could affect another persons opinion and feelings.
A good example of a selfish person is the person who drew the cartoon that insulted the religion Islam. That person was very selfish, and did not think before he drew the cartoon. If he/she had been thinking service before self, they would have thought this would insult and upset people of this religion, I should not print it. People who are in the Iraq war are also a help in service before self. They have given their lives to defend the world from terrorism and nuclear war. They have made the ultimate sacrifice and have taken service above self to the maximum. These are the true heroes of the world
hope this helps
