8 Comments

  1. Cindy Anderson says:

    I know I respond mainly as a melancholy, but I see myself in some of the other personality types too. This is powerful because it helps me understand the way others respond differently than me. Maybe I can offer them a bit more grace, and hope they do the same with me!

    1. Cindy —

      You’ve hit the nail on the head! I’ll never forget a woman who came up to me several years ago and said, “You changed my life!” I asked her what she meant. She reminded me that the year prior, I’d spoken to her women’s group on the Personalities. “I learned grace,” she said.

      Clearly, the the Holy Spirit had been mightily at work, as one faulty human can not teach grace to another! But she proceeded to tell how understanding the personalities had totally changed how she related to her children, her husband, and other family members. SO powerful!

    1. So true!

      On our own, deadly to ourselves and others.

      Tempered by the Holy Spirit, deadly to the enemy’s cause!

  2. I guess I find myself somewhere between sanguine and phlegmatic on this one. Hmmm…

    1. Amie —

      Do you see yourself as a “people-pleaser”?

      I never have, until I gave a survey in preparation for a book that includes people-pleasing. The top 2 words everyone used to describe the consequences of people-pleasing were “bitterness” and “resentment” and I thought, “Oh NO! On top of everything else, I’m a people-pleaser, too?!?” No, can’t be.

      Less than a week later, a student dashed into my room, “needing” to borrow a thumb drive. Long story short, I jumped into action — without any thought for my own needs — and gave him one of my thumb drives. Turned out to be the one I should NOT have loaned, as it had major projects from my students that I needed to grade. You can probably write the script: he lost it but said he’d returned it. Had a week of pulling out my hair at how irresponsible he was being, how he should care because I’d cared, before I realized, “Yes, Cheri, you sure did do this to yourself, didn’t you!”

      What un-nerves me the most is how often I do things “for others” without ANY thought for myself or the consequences. Literally, not even a nano-second! I’m trying to start asking myself, “Who cares the most about this situation? Who will stop caring if I intervene? What are the consequences to me? to them? Am I okay with the consequences?”

      Anyhow, sorry for the people-pleasing diatribe! If none of this sounds familiar, I am glad for you! 🙂

  3. The sanguine and the melancholy responses both sound like what affects me… I KNOW most (if not all) holiday stress that I experience is self-imposed! My husband is such an even-keel kind of guy, he really does a good job of showing me how it’s possible to not let people and circumstances get under my skin. But I’m still learning. 🙂

    What I’ve been having a really hard time with, lately, has just been getting myself to focus on the “things above”. It’s almost like I have no willpower… (Doesn’t help that I’m 5 months pregnant and tired and hungry and emo) ;p

    1. Sarah —

      Bless you heart — 5 months pregnant!

      I’ve struggled w/the Sanguine and Melancholy reactions most of my life…wanting to have fun but losing it over “failures.” My husband sounds a lot like yours — very steady, lets things roll like water off a duck. 🙂

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