Miss Personality

My friends and I have been taking these personality tests lately. I love these things. In fact I’m kind of a test junkie when it comes to the human psyche. I love to know what makes people tick.  If I was held at gunpoint and forced to go back to school (which is the ONLY way I’d go back to school), I’d study psychology.  But only because back-up singer for anybody cool isn’t a real degree.  Unfortunately, my tick-makers aren’t very fun as far as descriptive words go. For example, Introvert. Yea. Not really at the top of the party invite list, that one. And then there’s Beaver.  Um, dear Mr. Smalley: WHY??  You also have Phlegmatic, which sounds like it might require some sort of medication, and lastly there’s Melancholy. I actually kind of like this one. Miss Melancholy. Melancholy Baby. Yep. I’m cool like that. But again, as far as words go, it doesn’t get people fired up like that Sanguine thing. If you look it up in a thesaurus, you’ll see sad, depressed, downhearted, miserable and gloomy, just to name a few. Who in the world gets pumped about hangin’ with the downhearteds?

PERSONALITY TEST! WHO ARE YOU? 

So all these recent tests have got me thinking. We Beavers tend to do that. Quite analytically, in fact, just in case you were curious.  And it seems the Introverts & Beavers have gotten a bad rap. One of the tests I took even used the word “introvert” in its list of weaknesses.  I don’t know about you, but to have my very nature called weak is all together not cool. I may not throw caution to the wind by default. I might like to write things down in my planner with a different colored Sharpie for each family member. I might even need everything on my coffee table to be placed at 90 degree angles. But still.  Weaknesses? I gotta go with no.

If you buy into the whole created in God’s image thing like I do, then it’s easy to see where the Lions and Extroverts fit in. God, definitely Lion. And you’d have to be an Extrovert to split an ocean in half so people could walk through it. But where does that leave the quiet in new social situations gals like me? Where do we who recharge best by being alone come from? And what is our fascination with lists?? 

I say the answer lies in the same place from which our fun-loving, loudest in the room counterparts get their identity. And, in my humble opinion, the fact that our character traits need to be a little further investigated to be understood makes them all the more intriguing. Especially if you’re a girl. And I am. Which brings me to point number one.

To be understood, you have to be known. And to be known, you have to be pursued. Boom.

God is a jealous God. He says so right there in Exodus. You know, that book where He shares that special Top Ten List? He doesn’t want you chasing after other gods. He knows we’re all pursuing something, and what He wants you to pursue is Him. If you don’t pursue Him, you won’t know Him. Get it? You can’t be known and loved for who you are unless people are willing to chase after you. And neither can God. Insert happy dance here. Because like I said, I’m all girl. And the only thing girls want more than to be pursued is to be known. Just like God. It’s an image thing, ladies. Score one for the Introverts.

Point number two. God is a God of order. It’s just the way the universe works. Seasons. The food chain. The Sun goes down and stars come out at just the right time stuff. 

So if you like the paper clips and rubber bands in different little cubbies in your desk tray, you come by it honestly. Keep rolling those socks and hanging those clothes according to sleeve length, material and color, my fellow Beavers. You’re in excellent company.

So what does that leave us with? Ah, yes, the alone thing. Being an Introvert isn’t really about how shy or quiet you are. It’s about how you derive energy. Are you energized by being with people or by downtime alone? We can look to the one and only God incarnate Person of Jesus Christ on this one. No doubt Jesus loved hanging with His boys. But what did He do to recharge? He sent the crowd away. 

Matthew 14:23

After he had sent them away, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. 

Matthew 15:29

Jesus left there. He walked along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down. Large crowds came to him. 

I especially like that second one. The introverted move was that, after being with people all day, He was trying to be alone, but popular guy that He was, the crowd followed Him. But once they were there, it was on. He saw that they were hungry and fed all 5,000+ of them. Now if that’s not a life of the party move, I don’t know what is. Not to mention all girl hostess with the mostest stuff.  Which goes to show that we Introverts are a must at parties. We can even be loud. My friends will attest to this! But when it’s over, we’re gonna need a little down time on our personal mountainside. That’s where we’ll refuel, because as much as we love you Sanguines, you, quite frankly, make us a little tired! But truly in a good way. Like the mother of 5 toddlers who is wiped out at the end of her day but wouldn’t change a moment for anything. It’s a good tired. And we’ll most definitely want to do it again. We’ll just need some time to get ready. Maybe make a list or two, organize a drawer.

So Extroverts and Otters of the world, take note. You might even want put us Introverts and Beavers on speed dial. Because you can’t feed all those people without skills like ours. And when we say we've got to go, don’t be offended. It just means we’ve spent all our energy on you because we love you. And if we’re going to do it again, we’ve got to get to our mountainside to regroup. That way, when you call in the middle of our well-planned, scheduled-to-the-minute day for some spontaneous shopping & Starbucks, we’ll be ready.