You are currently browsing the daily archive for December 16, 2011.
Through doing the personality tests and motivational gifts tests the idea and the hope is that you get this appreciation of how cool God has made you to be. That fearfully wonderfully made thing again and that sets you alight to love God more and receive His love more and overflow from that.
A person’s physical appearance can change dramatically over the years, but our personality is in a way ingrained for a lifetime. Through the work of the Holy Spirit each person’s inborn weaknesses can be overcome, and our strengths put to use, but the underlying personality remains relatively the same.
I think that these classifications are excellent and helpful in understanding why people act the way they do – people being us and people being other people around us.
By understanding how we’re wired we can then see how others are wired, either in similar ways or different ways. Knowing who you are and how you are wired can actually give you strategies to effectively connect and communicate with others – which is a good thing since this planet is filled with PEOPLE!
Okay… so personality types…
Generally there are 4 types – they can be called many different things:
Sanguine – playful, popular, otter, expressive
Choleric – powerful, lion, dominant
Melancholic – precise, beaver, analytical
Phlegmatic – peaceful, golden retriever, solid
We are wired a certain way – made and created and designed by God. We have experiences that shape us and train us and refine us. And we make choices that also affect who we are and what we do. There is that tension between “if I am made like X I will be like X forever” and “if God called me then HE can click His fingers and work it out like this” – a tension with that and with the reality that our choices do play a role in us living our best lives.
One particular verse that challenges me about who I am and how I am living is 2 Timothy 2:20-21
In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 2 Timothy 2:20-21
Be someone that says YES to God. Philippians 2 says that God is at work in us to make us willing to do His will. He is leading us and guiding us. He outworks our steps. But we must say YES to that nudge and YES to His leading and YES to walking the path He sets out before us. You hear my heart?
We all have weaknesses and strengths. We all often are very aware of our weaknesses but have trouble accepting our strengths and good qualities. Esp here in New Zealand!
Knowing who God has made you to be isn’t about navel gazing or about self appreciation or looking in the mirror every day and going “how you doing?” – its about recognizing who God has made you to be, living in the freedom of that, tapping into your motivation, tapping into your strengths, being aware of your weaknesses so you can protect yourself (because weakness can sometimes lead to sin!) and then getting out there and living life to the max serving God as YOU!
No carbon copies allowed!
the other night we had our housegroup christmas party – complete with an oh so christian gift giving game. stealing allowed.
with my kids having the pox and other events going on i confess i wasn’t as planned as i usually am. i had to go to shops where i could safely leave the kids in the car, so they wouldn’t infect other kids.
so went to our local christian bookshop.
and found the perfect funniest christmas gift ever.
fruit of the spirit lip gloss.
yes.
fruit of the spirit lip gloss.
even funnier was what fruit it was.
you can get a flavour for each fruit but our local christian store only had apple flavour. which is funny in itself.
and the spiritual fruit it represented.
self control.
it was a real wmp moment.
so it went with the funky cup i had put away in my gift cupboard (for those just in case moments!)
and yes, we all laughed when it was opened by one of our young single guys!
still giggling about it….
Recent Comments