How did you acquire your own unique personality? Many factors contribute to your personality traits. Genetics are a factor, and not just your DNA makeup. Sure, we inherit certain personality traits from our parents. However, this does not mean your personality is split 50/50 between your parents. You are not exactly half of each parent’s personality but rather a seemingly random mix. It’s certainly not random, because God did the mixing to design you for what He knew you would need.
Genetics explains some of the quirks in your personality. For instance, I am 75% Scottish, English, and Irish, but roughly 17% of my genetics come from Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway). This may explain my size (six foot two and more than 250 pounds) as people from these countries tend to be big and tall. Maybe my 17% of Viking blood also explains my great love for football since the Vikings were known as great warriors, and football has been described as legalized war.
Many personality tests are available, along with many different labels for personality types. The first I ran across were sanguine, choleric, melancholy, and phlegmatic. Most people who study personality types believe no one is 100% of any personality type but a unique mixture of at least two. Experts also believe personality types are not set at birth, but everyone has a natural tendency to revert to their original personality type. In addition to inherited personality, our personalities are shaped by life events and experiences. Sometimes, a natural introvert may encounter a job situation requiring him or her to be more outgoing, and the personality shifts accordingly. Someone without natural leadership traits may be forced to lead and develop those skills. The indecisive may be forced into situations where they must make decisions.
God designed us all with different personalities, and sometimes clashes develop between personalities. Most experts in team building emphasize the benefits of a mix of personality types because the differences hold the group in tension and help offset bad decisions. Every personality type has strengths and weaknesses. Your weakness may be a strength for another personality.
As much as we would like to believe we can manage any situation, the truth is someone with a different personality may handle some things better than you. In a team or church context, we should let others use their God-given gifts to make the whole team or congregation better. We can’t all be “the life of the party” or the strong, solid, decisive leader, or the meticulous accountant type, or the easygoing type that seems to let nothing bother them. However, we need all these varying types of people as we work to build God’s Kingdom.
To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 12, we can’t all be eyes, ears, mouths, or feet, but for the church to function, we need every part of the body, just like we need all personality types.
About the Columnist: David Brown is director of Free Will Baptist Foundation. To learn more,
visit www.fwbgifts.com.
