4 Personalities
A valuable book.
Explanation below...
"He may claim to be Christian, but I simply don't like his personality."
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Okay.
It's funny how some people immediately draw us toward them, while other people instantly repel us.
Sometimes it's because of a positive or negative association with someone from our past.
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I heard of a single man who shared classes with an attractive young woman.
He wanted to know her better.
But upon introductions, he learned she had the same first name as his mother.
This was a deal-breaker for him. He couldn't image having a romantic life with a woman named like his mother.
This is sad and sort-of-funny at the same time.
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Some people are nice, but may physically resemble a bully from the past,
or resemble an authority figure we clashed with when we were younger.
Often, people ascribe personalities to certain looks, or LifeSkills.
People would expect lumberjacks to be loud and forceful, but that is often not the case.
Sometimes the most physically powerful men are the quietest and gentlest.
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My point?
People are born, I believe, with certain personalities,
and as life flexes itself on us, we adapt and form the personalities we have as adults.
And if we come to Christ and be saved, the Holy Spirit begins to re-shape our personalities,
to be more like Christ every day that we walk with him.
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But there are some people in church who seem as rough as an old, dry corn cob.
And there are people outside the church, reveling in sin, that seem nicer that some church folk.
It's true.
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But we can't see what these church-cobs went through growing up,
or what they must endure as adults, or where they would be without Christ.
And often, the nice no-church people are always manipulating others to get their own way,
so they have a reason to be pleasant.
When you go to church, you'll see a few people there that might otherwise be dead,
either by drugs or an abusive boyfriend.
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Church is many things to many people.
For some, church is a refugee camp or a rehabilitation center.
These folks are arm-wrestling with Jesus - into a better life.
This means they are learning new life skills and new coping skills,
And in the process, they will have some rough edges showing through.
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But back to the main task of this article,
to introduce you to a book, my wife and I read decades ago.
It helped us learn to get along with each other, and with other people with difficult personalities.
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There are 4 basic personalities, with several combinations and variations.
This book explains what we are without Christ,
and how the Holy Ghost tempers our personalities as we submit to Him.
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Spirit-Controlled Temperament, Tim LaHaye, Tyndale House Publishing.
Fascinating.