No Comparison

Published by Angela | Filed under Personalities

I guess we all do it – compare ourselves to others.  We either find ourselves on the top wondering why everyone isn’t’ more like us.  Or, we find ourselves somewhere below knowing we just don’t measure up to others.   As we study the personalities, we find that there are people similar to us but others very different, even opposites.  Though we have similarities we are still unique.  No one has the exact same strengths and weaknesses with the same intensity.  That is why we shouldn’t be comparing ourselves with others.  We’re unique – there is no real comparison.  Yet, we do it anyway.  Sometimes it makes us feel better about ourselves and other times it may leave us depressed.    In my case, there were times it left me feeling as if there were something wrong with me.  My Perfect Melancholy friends were quiet, orderly, organized, neat and very disciplined.  Well, that just didn’t describe me.  I usually ended up with my foot in my mouth from trying to make up for my Perfect friend’s’ quietness.  I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb with my loud laugh. My room as a teenager was a mess and I certainly couldn’t be described as organized.  High spirited, busy achiever, strongly opinionated, flexible and undisciplined described me better.  I spent way too much energy trying to become someone I was not.  Then I read Florence Littauer’s book, Personality Plus  and the mystery was solved.  There wasn’t’ anything wrong with me.  I wasn’t shaped to be a Perfect Melancholy.  I was shaped to be a Powerful Choleric/Popular Sanguine.  It was okay to be me.  Wow, what a revelation. 

 In case you don’t believe me, The Message says in Psalm 139, “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb.  I thank you, High God - you’re breathtaking!  Body and Soul (personality), I am marvelously made!  Isaiah 43:21 (NJB) tells us “The People I have shaped for myself will broadcast my praises.”  Some of us will broadcast His praises enthusiastically, some queitly reserved, some from behind the scenes and some leading the charge.  Quit comparing and just go ahead and be who God has shaped you to be — you.