Peaceful Phlegmatic
again sorry for the delay in posting these blogs.
Alright, how are you all doing out there? I hope you are well. I'm doing pretty fabulous out here in God's will and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Anyways, today, (December 9, 2010) Team Lionheart had the privelege to have a 'Personality Profile' class with a local missionary here in Panama. Her and her husband first treated us to an amazing lunch with dessert and just overall some good company, including the five dogs that are at their house (I believe three are theirs and the other two they are dog-sitting).
Then, we sat down and the local missionary (Amanda), began telling us about the four personality types that were first thought out by the Greek 'Father of Medicine' (though we couldn't think of his name) and has been fully developed through the years. The four types are 'Peaceful Phlegmatic', 'Powerful Choleric', 'Perfect Melancholy', and 'Popular Sanguine'. All of them have different tendencies, emotional needs, and such that I do not have time to get into. You'll have to do some research.
So, we got papers to fill out to find out our strengths and weaknesses (very difficult, seeing as quite a few in each category could apply to me, but I tried choosing the best possible fit for me). These papers were thought out by Fred Littauer back in the day (not sure the year).
About an hour to an hour and a half later, after the seven of us struggled to figure these answers out for ourselves, though periodically getting help from each other, we added our totals up in each column on the sheet. The bottom answer for me with 2 points is 'Popular Sanguine', while the next answer at 4 points is 'Powerful Choleric'. 'Perfect Melancholy' is next at 14 points and 'Peaceful Phlegmatic' is at 20 points.
I was a little shocked at the answers, just because I know I have tendencies of all of them within certain situations, but I also realize the strong aspects of me being the 'Peaceful Phlegmatic' personality type.
A 'Peaceful Phlegmatic' has a basic desire of having peace and emotional needs of peace and quiet, feeling of worth, lack of stress, and respect. They also have a tendency to control others by means of procrastination…this is the part I don't see, because I love being punctual, super early at times and getting my work and everything done way before the time it is due (most of the time anyway). Either way, this is pretty spot on and the strengths and weaknesses that came up throughout the process are all pretty spot on (though some others in each could apply as well).
This process of finding out my personality type has been intense and thought provoking, especially for only about two hours of delving into this level of teaching on personalities. However, while this information is all good and well to know, especially to be able to work on the weaknesses that came up to become a stronger person, it is still not the final say all on who I am. You see, though this information is good, it is still done through man's perspective and man's thoughts on what personalities are and could be.
God, however, has better tendencies and I believe and think He created us to be a complete balance of all four of these personality types, which Christ embodied throughout His time on Earth. The names He may not use precisely, but the thoughts behind them are still close to what He invisions for each and every one of us. it is through this thought that I take this information and ask the Lord, 'How can I be who you truly created me to be? What must I do to walk in the fullness of the man you created me to be?'
My challenges this month, then, become finding out more of who I am and how my Father in Heaven views me and through that process stepping up boldly and courageously into the fullness of who He created me to be.
Thank you for reading this blog!! I challenge you to go to the King of Kings and ask Him who He thinks you are and how He views you…then listen, doesn't matter how long, but take more time than you normally would and listen…just listen. Write down what you get back. It'll be worth it. Be patient with it as well…we, in America especially, tend to be impatient and expect everything in the snap of a finger…God doesn't work the way we do. Don't put Him in a box.
Ok…ok…thank you and have a blessed day! Hopefully my writing made sense. You'd probably have to go through it to get the fullness of what went down with our team. We're going to dive more into it together as time goes on. Love you all! God Bless!!
Indiana Jones hat that I've been wearing…found it in the church and our contact said ok.
