{"id":7365,"date":"2021-12-28T11:04:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T01:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7365"},"modified":"2021-12-28T11:04:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T01:04:19","slug":"different-personality-types-united-in-the-body-of-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/different-personality-types-united-in-the-body-of-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Different Personality Types United in the Body of Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Different Personality Types United in the Body of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

By Ereeny Mikhail<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever\nbeen in a situation and thought to yourself, why a person did a particular\nthing? Or why a person responded in a certain way? Or why a person made a\nspecific decision? And then proceeded to think to yourself, I would have\nnever done that<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there\u2019s\none perfect reason for this – personality. The concept of personalities has\nbeen studied for a long time, and it has been found that the most accurate way\nto classify individuals, based on personality, is the Myer Briggs Test. The\nMyer Briggs Test is not a test that describes who we are, but rather helps us\nunderstand every individual\u2019s natural preference. This means by your nature why\nyou do or don\u2019t do a certain thing. There are 16 categories but of course this\ndoes not mean there are only 16 types of people in the world, as personality is\nnot the only thing that makes us who we are. Further to personality,\nexperiences, talents, likes, dislikes, and environment also help us understand\nwho we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is a\ngreat thing \u2013 as much as these differences may seem to separate us, they in\nfact, unite us together. Imagine if we were all created the same. Every\nsituation we respond in the same way. We all have the same dreams. We all have\nthe same flaws. This is something I ponder often in order to give myself a\ngreater understanding into why a scenario played out the way it did. And I come\nup with the same conclusion every time. We are not robots. We are not all the\nsame. Although someone\u2019s response to a certain scenario may have been different\nto the way I would have responded, it is actually a good thing because it\nprovides new ideas, opens new doors, and teaches us new things. The world develops\nand changes because of different personality types uniting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s think back for a second to the different personalities in the Bible. St Paul was Saul \u2013 Saul was aggressive, wasn\u2019t he? Yet, St Paul would not have done the work he did without being Saul. He used this boldness to do mission trips and to preach. He stayed true to who he was but gave it to God. Now let\u2019s compare that to St Mary \u2013 she was quiet and gentle and pondered things in her heart. Without being so, she would not have given us The King of Kings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrastingly, St Peter was impulsive, and he transformed his impulsiveness to a passion which brought others to Christ. Again, differently, Mary Magdalene was courageous. Imagine being a woman in those days, waking up in the early morning, walking alone to the tomb, after watching the violence and crucifixion only a few days earlier. It\u2019s scary to even think about. Yet again, without this courage, she would not have been the first to witness the resurrection of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Augustine<\/strong> poses a question that may seem confronting, \u201cHow can you draw close to God, when you are far from your own self<\/strong><\/em>?\u201d And this is true \u2013 in all the above scenarios, these individuals were true to themselves and thus, drew closer to God and drew others to God. Therefore, it is essential to fully understand ourselves. St Clement of Alexandria<\/strong> says, \u201cKnow yourself. He who knows himself will know God. He who knows God will become like God.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> By knowing who we are we learn more about how God communicates with us, we learn more about our strengths and weaknesses and are therefore able to completely fulfil our purpose. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Isaac the Syrian<\/strong> further contemplates on this and says, \u201cBlessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, root and beginning of all goodness<\/em>.<\/strong>\u201d Knowing our weaknesses gives us a greater understanding of how to respond to our sins in order to get closer to God. We can turn this weakness into our strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s spend some time scratching the surface of the different personalities in the Myer Briggs test. Each personality consists of four letters. The first letter is either an I or an E meaning Introvert or Extrovert, respectively. Ultimately, this is where you go to recharge \u2013 whether you prefer quiet environments or loud environments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second letter is either an N or an S meaning Intuitive or Observant, respectively. This is how we gather information from the world around us. Intuitive individuals imagine the past and picture the future whereas Observant people assess facts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following letter is T or F whereby T means thinking, and F means feeling. Thinking are individuals who view things as either right or wrong whereas feelers view things more emotionally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, J and P means judging and perceiving, respectively, and is referring to how you get from point A to point B. J individuals are more calculating whereas P individuals are more spontaneous. Of course, there are gradings on each scale meaning no two individuals are the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once we have\nlearnt about ourselves, we cannot deny who we are, \u201cFor we are His workmanship,\ncreated in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we\nshould walk in them<\/em>.\u201d (Ephesians 2:10)<\/strong> The more we remove what we\ncurrently think we are and let Him take us over, the more true to ourselves we\nbecome. So, we should ask God to reveal our heart to us, and once it is\nrevealed, we must accept it. As St Paul says in I Corinthians 15:10<\/strong>, \u201cBut\nby the grace of God, I am what I am\u2026\u201d<\/em> And do not think that it is better to\nbe any other way. God made you perfect. Not one personality type is perfect \u2013\nall are perfect created in the body of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although, we\nmust recognise there is always work to be done. Our ultimate goal is to be in\nthe likeness of Christ. Thus, handing over who we are to God, then trusting He\nwill do the best with it. However, as with everything, this requires hard work.\nIt is not an excuse to hurt anyone or be lazy. \u201cAnd He said to me, \u2018My grace\nis sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.\u2019 Therefore,\nmost gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may\nrest upon me.\u201d<\/em> (II Corinthians 12:9)<\/strong> We are all masterpieces because\nGod made us, but this does not mean we won\u2019t have imperfections. The Holy\nSpirit works in each personality type to attract different people and to have\nservices of all kinds. We must glorify God in our uniqueness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray\nlike St Augustine<\/strong>, \u201cLord Jesus, let me know myself\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Different Personality Types United in the Body of Christ By Ereeny Mikhail Have you ever been in a situation and thought to yourself, why a person did a particular thing? Or why a person responded in a certain way? Or why a person made a specific decision? And then proceeded to think to yourself, I … Continue reading “Different Personality Types United in the Body of Christ”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7367,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7365\/revisions\/7367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}