Let me set the scene for you…
The 14 of us are sitting in our usual meeting room: a 12 x 12 room that we have lined with couches and chairs around the perimeter, with a huge white board leaning in one corner. Its after lunch (we had chicken salad on tostadas and spinach salad with feta and craisins..yum!), and we have moved into the workshop part of the day…which means we are now less in ‘lecture mode’ and more in ‘hands on mode’. There is paper scattered all over the floor in the center of the room…turned in every different direction. We are riled up! We have just taken a very condensed version of the Myers Briggs Personality Assessment Test…and the results are in! The papers on the floor are the explanations of the 16 possible outcomes of the test. Everyone is talking excitedly at once…some reading their own results outloud to themselves or to their neighbor, some asking what certain letter combinations mean, some poking fun at another across the room because we know each other way too well and its hilarious to finally have light shed on some’s quirks, shall we say 🙂 Thalia, Seth’s daughter who aptly explained the test to us, is bent over the mess of papers, waiving one in the air every so often yelling out letters as if on the floor of the stock exchange. She finally yells out, “ISFJ? Anyone an ISFJ?”
That’s me. I am an ISFJ. Introvert. Sensor. Feeler. Judger. That last one sounds bad, but ends up not being so bad once explained 🙂 Let me explain all of them for you….because once explained to me, i sure understood myself better 🙂
There are 4 categories:
Introvert/Extravert (I/E)= are you drained by interacting with people or does it give you more energy?
Intuitive/Sensor (N/S)= are you more of an abstract thinker- seemingly connecting the dots with your train of thought or do you think more linear and are more detail oriented?
Thinker/Feeler (T/F)= do you make decisions based on logic rather than moved or swayed by emotions or do you make decisions more emotively in order to make sure everyone is happy?
Judger/Perceiver (J/P)= the best question to determine this is: do you have less stress after or before a decision is made?
Knowing these 4 little letters about myself makes a world of difference! Does the combination describe me to a T and give me complete understanding about how i will react to any given situation…well, no,not really….but it sure does give an accurate description on how i tend to make decisions or react to other people or think through problems.
Today what it did for me, along with a couple of other similar assessments that we took, is it shed light on what i may or may not pursue in the future. It enables me to think through all the possible options that i may come across in the next few years and lean towards those that best suits my temperament.
The bottom line: its all about identity. God made us all unique….our smiles, our eyes, our interests, passions, and yes, our personalities! And it all adds up to equal one unique package…WE ARE COMPLETE! I am an ISFJ. Its not better or worse than an ESTP…its just different. All it means is i make decisions differently and our interactions with people have different effects on us. This is where the verse is cued that says He knows every hair on our head….and not to make light of that verse by not quoting and citing it correctly…but it is true. If we believe that we are created by God and He is Perfect…then the conclusion is easy. Our personalities…all 16 different combinations of them glorify Him!!
So to all of those ENFP’s and ISFP’s and ESTP’s and INSJ’s out there: You are just as your Creator created you. When you cry more than those around you…or when things seem to make more sense to you than it does to others…or when you just want everyone to be happy…. you’re not better or smarter or less fun….you are just you.
So be you! God gets the most glory when you are most fully you!
