Attitude Quiz

Money, mates and motivation

Have you got what it takes?

Take this quiz and see if you have what it takes to do a gap year with SU Scotland…

1. You are due to help take an assembly in front of a whole school of 400 primary-aged children – you’ve never done anything like this before and the butterflies are playing football in your stomach! What do you do?

(a)  Immediately refuse to do it until you feel that you’re ready

(b)  Pretend to have laryngitis and phone in sick that morning

(c)  Take up the challenge - admit you’re scared, pray for courage, ask for help and do it anyway

2.  You’ve just started sharing a house with 2 other people you don’t know very well. One of them always blares out the TV late at night when you’re in bed trying to sleep. What do you do?

(a)  Stomp out of bed irritably and yell at them to have some consideration and turn the telly down

(b)  Buy a pair of ear plugs and suffer in silence

(c)  Make the housemate a cup of coffee the next day when you’re calmer and try to talk to them about it

3.  You have been left to work on your own for most of the day with a list of tasks to do. How do you spend your time?

(a)  Take the opportunity to have a ‘slow’ day – after all, you’ve deserved it after all the hard work of ministry you have been doing lately

(b)  Go through the list and spend the day doing all the tasks you find easy, leaving the rest for another day or another person to do

(c)  Figure out a way to combine the tasks you like with the ones you don’t so you can achieve as much as you can, God is watching you even if no one else is

4.  One of your housemates is going through a really hard time, and one evening they obviously need someone to talk to. However, you have plans to go to the cinema as there’s a movie you’re desperate to see. You:-

(a)  Pretend not to notice the tears spilling from your housemate’s eyes, and look straight ahead as you rush out the door

(b)  Tell them that a great way to feel cheered up would be to just come to the movie with you

(c)  Decide that you can see the movie another time, make tea, and sit down to listen to your housemate.

5.  You quite like the idea of doing a gap year with Scripture Union Scotland. This is mainly because

(a)  It would look great to have a year of volunteer work on your c-v and you would enjoy the prestige of working with such a well-known Christian organisation

(b)  You like the idea of standing in front of lots of groups of young people showing them how much you know about the Bible and about God

(c)  You really want to spend a year of your life serving God in whatever way you can and helping other young people understand Him more

6.  You have discovered that one of your fellow gap-year participants has said something hurtful about you to someone else. You

(a)  Get your own back by starting a little ‘harmless’ rumour about the offender, but acting sweet as pie to their face

(b)  Decide you can no longer trust them, ignore and avoid them whenever possible

(c)  Pray that God will enable you to forgive them, and maybe for an appropriate opportunity to speak with them about it calmly

7.    What would be one of the great personal benefits about doing a gap-year with Scripture Union Scotland?

(a)  Possibly finding a boyfriend/girlfriend and starting a new exciting romance

(b)  Working with and being around other Christians all the time for a year where it should be dead easy to live out your faith

(c)  Growing in your relationship with God, learning more from the Bible, and having to depend more on Him in all the challenges that will arise

8.  Money is

(a)  Fantastic! I love shopping and all my spare money goes on buying the latest clothes/music/gadgets

(b)  Something to save and accumulate as much of as possible so I can live a comfortable life

(c)  Something I need to live on and can enjoy spending, but also to be used to help others and to give to God’s work, even if I sometimes have to go without the latest stuff

9.  When hard times come my way in life, I

(a)  believe that I can overcome anything with positive thinking and being a determined person who doesn’t like to show weakness

(b)  try to ignore painful circumstances and keep busy with other things

(c)  turn to God and ask Him to help me, and try to find people who will help me face the challenges and work my way through them, even if it’s painful and hard work

10.  If I am asked to do tasks that I find menial or monotonous, I

(a)  Have some ingenious ways of getting out of what I don’t want to do, or getting other people to do it for me

(b)  Know these things have to be done, so I grit my teeth and do what I have to do, as quickly as possible, with a stoic attitude

(c)  Put as much effort into the background tasks as if I was upfront, and trying to remember that the boring bits are just as important as the exciting bits when it comes to serving God.

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If your answers were:

MOSTLY As:  You are pretty good at looking out for number 1 (ie YOU!), and need to swap some of that selfishness for servanthood

MOSTLY Bs:  Sounds like you often would like to do the right thing, but need to have a bit more courage to look at problems face-on. Avoiding the issue won’t make it go away!

MOSTLY Cs:  You sound like the kind of person we’re looking for to do a gap year with Scripture Union. OK, we know you’d have to be a total saint to really act this way in all these situations, and we know that nobody’s perfect, but if these reponses are what you aspire to, why not consider applying?

We want people who:

• are committed Christians and have a heart to serve God through a variety of both upfront and background tasks;
• are committed to personal and spiritual growth, even when it means facing uncomfortable or difficult situations;
• are willing to put other people before themselves and will model Christ’s example of love, patience, forgiveness, generosity and compassion;
• have the courage to face new situations and do their best in all they are asked to do;
• are up for a year of hard but rewarding work;
• are committed to the ethos and mission of Scripture Union Scotland and its work with the young people of Scotland.