we are what we believe

Honorable judges, fellow students:
Good morning!
When we were children, some of us may have asked our parents “Where do I come from and who am I?” So at that time, we have been already curious about our identities. Till now, many of us are still confused it, even our parents’generation. “Who am I?”
As for this topic, my favorite Christian writer C.S. Lewis brought his opinion that we are what we believe we are. That’s the very opinion I want to talk about today that who we are depends on what we believe and it is faith that light up the forward roads of our lives.
From a broader perspective, believes build our view of life and let us know what the purpose of life is. Thomas Carlyle said: “The man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder-a waif, a nothing, a no man.” Everyone’s life is driven by something. That thing is your belief. With the ideal of democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities, Nelson Mandela sacrifice his own freedom to free his people, and transform South Africa; with the dream that all men are created equal, Dr. King devoted his life to saving black men from trails and tribulation; with the ideal of the independence of nation and happiness of people, Dr. Sun yat-sen dedicated himself to toppling Qing-Dynasty and building the republic. You see the power. However, there are so many people who are driven by guilt, anger, fear, materialism or the need for approval instead of love, humility and forgiveness. So my fellow students, we need pay attention to our own believes. Nowadays in China, many people have a new belief I named it Moneism. But possessions only provide temporary happiness. Because things do not change, we eventually become bored with them and then want newer, bigger and better versions.
On the small things, belief can change our life to better in details. I’d like to share my own experiences. To be honest, I always fail to get along well with my roommates before and indeed I always raise disputes because I dislike them. However, Jesus asks us people to love and forgive people, even enemies. So I try to love them by heart. I took their thermos bottle away each time I go downstairs to get hot water; I usually clean the whole room rather than only my place like before. Every time I do these things, I try to keep my mind full of love and no any complaint. And months later, it touched me that they started to be accustomed to helping me get hot water and we are in quite harmony. Naturally we three made a happy trip to Shandong during this spring break.
So it can be seen that belief is so important that we need it to light up our forward roads. My fellow students, it is time for us young generation to establish our faiths and live purpose driven lives. When we look back one day, I believe we can amazingly find a ray of bright light of faith behind the ups and downs of life.。