Personality Types

This afternoon, Meagan and I attended a seminar at our church, Christ Community. I forgot the name of the speaker (which is pretty sad . . . . ), but whoever it was did a fantastic job. He currently lives in a small town in Alabama and was just visiting Australia for a few days. The lecture was focused around how our personalities relate to God's individual purpose for our lives, and some of his points were so good that I just had to share them here.

First, he said that everyone's purpose is to know God and to appreciate Him as God, but that within that general purpose, we all have our own individual purpose. He went a step further, and mentioned that God has designed us for that specific purpose. God fully fashioned you and gave you the gifts and abilities He knew you would need to fulfill His ultimate purpose for your life. So, when God made you more scientifically inclined or gave you fantastic social skills, or even gave you limited social skills, He knew exactly what He was doing. The speaker also said that we should accept how God made us and not wish we have others' personality types, gifts, etc. I found that particularly challenging. Sometimes I wish I was more like so-and-so, or didn't have to spend so much time on my history homework, which I'm sure others in my class can accomplish in a shorter period, but it's so comforting to know that God made me that way just so that I can fulfill a purpose that He has chosen for my life! Isn't that just amazing? It kind of reminds me of the inspirational Bible verse from Jeremiah 29:11, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" I find that verse incredibly encouraging. God actually has a specific purpose for us.

Second, we all were given a little quiz based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to find out our personality. I don't know about you all, but I absolutely LOVE personality tests, finding out more about myself, and finding out more about others. It's not like I want to be a Psychiatrist, but I find personality tests fascinating.

So, we all took the quiz, and I ended up with the same personality type that I have received in all my other tests (yes, I have taken more than one . . .)--ESFJ. That means I'm an extrovert, that I think along lines of facts and data instead of abstract ideas, that I base my decisions on my feelings, and that I like things to be organized. It was actually pretty funny, but Meagan turned out with almost the exact same result; she "happens" (of course, it really doesn't just "happen"; God decided & planned it all) to be an ESFP, so she is more flexible than I am.

At this point, the speaker shared with us some different personality types of the authors of the four Gospels. Matthew was an SJ (this was taken from just two parts of the personality test) and called "The Guardian"; Mark was "The Artisan," with an "SP" personality; Luke was an "NT" and "The Rationalist," while John was "The Idealist" and an "NF." The speaker divided the audience into these four groups, and spoke about a few traits of them. He said that the group I was in (the Matthew group) was almost always the largest. And people in the group Meagan stood in (the Mark one) were generally more athletic than those in other sections. Isn't that cool?

I just thought that it was really interesting and wanted to share with you all what Meagan and I learned. Have a great day!