Characteristics VS Personality Part Three
We almost always have to be taught to play well with others. As toddlers, preschoolers, or for us slow learning children elementary school we are taught to share our things and not argue! If you had siblings the lessons were often times hard. You may have to not only share an occasional toy, but you also have to share rooms, attention, and parents. I firmly believe we are all born with a load of selfishness, and we have to learn to to deal with it. However I also think there is a time in our lives where we should get to take a break from all that learning. We should be able to play well with others by the time we are adults. I am going to place an adult between the ages of 26-65. (On applications 26 puts you in a new age bracket. After 65, you should be able to retire and do what ever you want!)Now comes the connection. Our characteristics shape our personalities, and our personalities shape our likableness. What happens when those things don't mesh well with others? What if it makes it difficult for us to play well with others? My new job has lead to a new group of issues. Unfortunately many of them seem immature and drama filled in nature. After a few weeks of me personally walking around taking every comment, action or move, over analyzing and deciding that I am hated, I have taken few steps back and tried to figure out what is meant as a personal insult and what is just a difference of personality. I have discovered it is a mixture of both. Now comes the hard questions...Should we attempt to mold characteristics of our personality in order to get along better with others? Mom tells us to play nice then how far should we go? Should I have to change my personality so that others will like me better? Should we dislike people because they have a characteristic that gets on our nerves?
I know you can pick your friends. However you can't always pick who you have as an acquaintance? There are people at church, work or friends of friends that we just have to learn to deal with. Maybe if I learn to have a little grace with their personalities then they will learn to return the favor.
posted by deanna @ 4:20 PM
2 Comments:
Great thoughts Mademoiselle! I wonder what the return/opinion would be if the subject at hand was being written by a person with a "worldly" world view. When I was living with a certain family (not my own), I definitely struggled with some of these exact questions, finding a balance of living in peace of varying people vs. attempting to change certain things, some of which embodied who God has ceated me to be on certain levels, had both good and devestating effects. Seems to be a trial and error adventure is discovering the personality/charactaristic lines, and they're never static, simply becuase of the other people and circumstances involved. It seems it would be so much simpler if the movable fine line were clearly defined and constant, but that, I guess is why God is God and I am not. He is never changing, never dealing with the movable lines of personality and characteristics. Thank God! Can you even imagine what a mess it would all be if we had to deal with not only the flux and flow in ourselves but in God as well? I think it would be chaotic at best! In the meantime of our learning curves through it all, thank God for grace :)
I am sure a non-believer would have a totally different outlook. I know one of the reasons it has been a struggle at work is because those I work with are Christians. I have less grace for Christians than I do for non-Christians. I have struggled quite a bit with that since moving back to the states...
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home