Always a Martha never a Mary

I told Kevin I was gonna make another blog post. First three things out of his mouth in perfect succession: “Is it gonna be about how funny I am?”, “Is it gonna be about how good I look naked?”, “Is it gonna be about how amazing I am?”… When I told him I was actually planning to blog about the personality test we took the day before, intended to help us discover what our ‘spiritual gifts’ were… he started rambling incoherently… poor guy, must be hard to suffer from such low self esteem 😉

The diversion above was too funny for me not to include… just a little glimpse into the daily banter I get to exchange with my funny/amazing husband… we’ll leave the other description alone… Back to my original intent behind this blog….

The segway above, pretty much encapsulates why I wanted to take the class our church offered on discovering your spiritual gifts… Because I’m about as reverent as a rock. It’s true.
The personality test we took in preparation for the spiritual assessment was called the DISC test, (Drive, Influence, Steadiness, Compliance). My dominant personality was an ‘Influencer’ with my secondary being ‘Drive’. Check out the below description (copy/paste from website), its SCARY how close they pegged me.

(forgive my little sidebar’s)
General Characteristics:
Enthusiastic. Trusting; Optimistic. Persuasive; Talkative (ya’ think). Impulsive; Emotional

Value to Team:
Creative problem solver. Great encourager. Motivates others to achieve. Positive sense of humor. Negotiates conflicts; peace maker. (Love the warm fuzzies)

Possible Weaknesses:
More concerned with popularity than tangible results (ouch… the truth hurts). Inattentive to detail. Overuses gestures and facial expressions (ha ha ha, this one made me seriously laugh out loud… I’m pretty sure my nearest and dearest WROTE this portion). Tends to listen only when it’s convenient (ugh! guilty as charged… again).

Greatest Fear:
Rejection. (BINGO… although the dark… bugs… and those closest to me getting sick/dying are quite high on the list as well)

Our spiritual assessment was next. I was really pulling for the cool ones, you know, Miracles/Prophecy… God knew me better than that… I guess that’s only logical though.
The spiritual gifts ranking highest for me: (copy/paste from website)

Hospitality:
the gift that causes a believer to joyfully welcome and receive guests and those in need of food and lodging. Biblical References: Romans 12:13, Romans 16:23a, Luke 10:38.

Administration: the gift that enables a believer to formulate, direct, and carry out plans necessary to fulfill a purpose. Biblical References: I Corinthians 12:28, Acts 14:23.

In other words I’m Martha. Girl can throw a great party, but sometimes misses the point of the gathering entirely.

I think deep down I always knew this, but I kinda was hoping I’d find something different when I did it again, cause when I think of Martha I think of Jesus scolding her and telling her she should be more like Mary… can someone say serious middle child insecurities. I feel like Jan on the Brady Bunch… “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia”… except for other than high school years I don’t really harbor any jealousy towards either of my sisters, we are each so incredibly different, but seem to be managing just fine in our personal differences. The jealousy seems to be toward the Mary’s of the world… (If I’ve lost you through all of this you can read Luke 10: 38-42… I had to Google the story to find it in the bible… Bet ya’ Mary wouldn’t have had to google it… ;))

There were a few others out of the ~25 different gifts they had listed that I ranked high on, which gave me some solace, and the fact that they pegged my dead last ringers correctly (Leading any sort of song/praise/worship and speaking in tongues… dead last… Yep!) Needless to say it was an interesting morning, seeing yourself essentially spelled out in black and white is a rather eye opening experience. However one of the best qualities I’ve found at this church yet, is their capacity for getting people involved in what they were naturally suited for. Now that they have my number (literally and figuratively), I’m looking forward to seeing how the traits I never really saw before as ‘spiritual’ gifts, can be put to use in a spiritual way, and hoping along the way I can give up on my ‘weaknesses’ of doing these things for the recognition, and rather do them knowing it was what I was put here to do.

One comment

  1. mountainmeli says:

    awww, Julie, I love this one. I love it because you were so vulnerable and I love it because it takes me back to days at W.O. We all have our weaknesses, but I totally remember your great smile and all of the energy and enthusiasm you brought to every YL activity. Those things would just not have been the same if you hadn’t been there! I think the challenge for all of us is to embrace both what we are and what we’re NOT. At least, that is the challenge for me! I’ve always wished I had a little more “Administrative” gifts! Keep on writing, your posts make me laugh and smile every time!

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