Prince's Trust Advertisement - Footsteps

This is the new advertisement for the princes trust scheme. it came on when i was at the cinema and all the way through there was a sudden concentrated silence until the end when people turned to each other and said how great they think these sorts of schemes are....but will they actually do something to help them and the young people that they say need helping....why say something's does a great job and that young people need something like this...should they get out there and actually do something themselves? or is it enough just to give others a pat on the back for their work!

I just want to pick up on somethings that were talked about in today's key issues lecture. Dot asked us to write down what we believe...no other instruction just write down what you believe.

Tough question eh?

Well.....what do you believe?

Just this once I'm going to tell you what i wrote down.

I said that I believe.....

• That our past experiences shape the people we are today.
• That anything can be overcome, no matter how hard it looks.
• That no one can make a decision for you about anything, especially your faith.

And then i was stuck.... didn't really know what to write next. Dot asked us to share our lists with someone we didn't talk to very often. So we did and then she asked how similar our beliefs were and what kinds of things we had written down. Music? Football? TV?......God?

Had i written anything about what i believe about God....nope.....she asked people to say what they'd written about God....going around the circle. I don't know but i did feel a little bit singled out and frowned upon because i didn't write about God....Ok there were three of us who didn't but i still felt like we were kind of looked down upon by the rest of the group.....sorry guys but that's how it came across.....i know it wasn't meant to but that just highlights Dot's next point about how hard it is to be vulnerable....it was so hard to just do it then....to admit that i hadn't written anything down about God, i guess the reason was that i didn't know what i believed in order to write it down, put it into words.

But that's not the point.

Why is it so hard to be real with people? especially Christians who seem to have the 'I've got it all sorted' attitude in a way that makes others feel uncomfortable about owning up when they have a problem. Now I'm not going to go off on a big long rant about this but i just think we need to look at ourselves and see how real we are being, with ourselves and with other people too. So that we don't give off the persona that says 'I'm a christian, of course I'm happy!' and so that we're not afraid to tell people when we need help. This is so hard, I know that for myself but if we're Christians, we're family and we should support each other. maybe we need to make ourselves a little more venerable.....and in that way show others that its Ok to let the mask slip a little and show us a little bit more of who they are too.

I'll stop now because i want to know what you think.....

What DO you REALLY believe?

(don't be afraid to be controversial, you can even post anonymously, i don't mind but be honest.....)