Find Your Voice, Declare who you are.

In order to influence anyone you must have a solid understanding of your beliefs.
You can then educate others and help improve their lives by making them challenge and question their own belief system and how they got there.
Missionaries do this for others. You can do this too. Our world is crumbling around us because people are being blinded to the real problems out there.
If you want to change things....if you want to educate anyone on any issue, political or religious, you have to speak up!
I'm talking specifically on politics and world events here, but it can apply to anything you feel strongly about.
But what if you don't know what you believe or how you feel? Do you shy away from politics because you don't know enough about any issue to argue or discuss it? Or did you decide to tell yourself that you "don't care about it"....and yet, truthfully, the reason you say this is because you really don't know anything about it.
Why stay ignorant? Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is shame. You don't feel good when you say I Dont Know. There is no shame in not knowing IF you then go find the answer. Find out about the issues and know what is happening in the world around you. You can then educate others who are as lost as you once were, then they will look up to you, they will respect you, then and only then can you influence people, you can help change things by challenging people's ignorance.... So many people let the media tell them how things are and how to feel, the media tells us who to believe in, who to trust, how to look, how to feel about others who don't look a certain way, they tell us who the crooks and hero's are, but if you look further , if you think harder....you'll find that most of the time....they are wrong, the media are wrong.
I too once wondered too where to start....I found out that;
First you must know what you feel and why, or you will not be effective. If you only know what you've been told and you don't know the other side, you know nothing. You don't know the facts. Did you research all sides for yourself and decide on your own? If you don't know how you really feel about an issue, you need to find out. You need to decide. You need to be that one voice, that person others look to for information. You need to be that voice for your children, they need to know where you stand, and how to stand up for what's right. They need to watch you challenge others and watch you share your beliefs. Then they will look to you for answers instead of the world.
You have to take the time to educate yourself or you will not be effective in expressing anything, you need facts, you need conviction.

Write down your own mission statement on your beliefs and why you believe them. This will make everything clear for you when things become cloudy again. Take the Obama test on the issues in my link list to the right. This test lists every possible political issue out there and you can decide how you feel on your own through your own research.

The best list I've found so far for finding who you are is from Glenn Beck below..., I have added to it; you may begin your quest for who you really are and what you really believe by doing the following:

FIND YOUR VOICE: You are your own voice. Others may be silenced. Who will lead if your guy 'who speaks for you' is gone?

FIND YOURSELF: Who are you really? What do you believe? Have you been pushed and challenged? Do you know where you stand? Can you support it with real facts?

FIND YOUR WEAKNESS: Don’t ignore your weakness. Make your weakness into your strength. Find out where your ignorance lies. What are you afraid of? What can you change for the better about yourself?

FIND YOUR VALUES: Make your list of values, model it after your religion's but add what you find important and take away what you dont. Don't feel how you're "supposed" to feel by anyone else's standards. These values are your focus, work at them. Values don’t just ‘happen’ they are developed. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Be the same person at home, at work, in public and private.

FIND YOUR LOVE: Too much hate has been planted. Uproot it, pull it out and find a way to replace it with goodwill and mutual respect for those of different faiths, political parties or viewpoints. Find those people, and build good meaningful relationships with them, don't be afraid of anyone because they believe differently than you do.

FIND YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS: Connect and encourage those who put Constitution and service to God first. Find those who love charity and help them do some good, then help them wake others.

FIND YOUR JOY: It will not come from places that the media has encouraged us to find it. True joy won’t be found in money, sex or power. You will need to know where your unlimited supply of joy can be found. Look to your family. Look at selfless service. But you have to find it for yourself.

Read this article for more inspiration:
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/18299/