Friday, June 29, 2007

Temperaments - Part 1

Recently I met a friend for coffee and we talked about relationships and how different personalities affect those relationships and I was reminded again that understanding our differences can be so helpful. I first read about the study of temperaments when my children were just entering their teenage years (I wish I had known earlier). You can find many books written on the topic. Gary Smalley compared the temperaments to animals but I could never get the whole lion, otter, golden retriever and beaver thing. Florence Littauer wrote Personality Plus - her book is just fun to read.
I know that some people can take something like this and go crazy with it and make it their guide to living. I don't think it is the answer to all of our problems but it really helped me to understand myself and my family. I also found that it helped me to better understand God's calling in my life.
God created each of us with unique characteristics - Psalm 139:14 says "Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Ephesians 2:10 tells us "For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago." He planned who we were to be - gave us our very own unique temperament and then when we accepted Him as our Lord He gifted us with spiritual gifts that were "fueled" by our temperament so that we could do the things He planned for us to do to glofiy Him and further His kingdom. When He calls us to do something - He has already equipped us!
God could have made us all Sanguines. We could have lots of fun but accomplish little.
He could have made us all Melancholies. We would have been organized and charted but not very cheerful.
He could have made us all Cholerics. We would have been set to lead, but impatient that no one would follow!
He could have made us all Phlegmatics. We would have had a peaceful world but not much enthusiasm for life.
We need each temperament for the total function of the body.
Each part should do its work to unify the actionand produce harmonious results.
-Florence Littauer in The Gift of Encouraging Words
If nothing else, learning a little about temperaments is fun. I'll be back with more...

4 comments:

Jennifer Bacak said...

Mom,
I like the study of temperaments, and remember it over the years, growing up in our house. We do have an assortment!
Do you find, when teaching these, that people use the weaknesses of their temperaments as excuses to sin? Like, "I'm a Phlegmatic. I'm not a natural born leader. So my wife takes the reins..." etc.?
I know the study is intended to be about allowing the Holy Spirit to work on us, given our weaknesses and strengths. But is it easy to excuse our sin because we know it's our natural inclination, and how do you guard against that when teaching this?
(I know you've taught it many times, so I'm sure you have an answer to this.)
jenn

Cindy Seay said...

My next posting about temperaments is about that very thing. We can take an understanding of who we are and use the strengths and the weaknesses as an excuse for sin.
Check out the next post in a couple of days!
i love you! mom

Anonymous said...

I love getting your input on this becaue I to and about to teach this in our post adoption CARE group at our church. I have been reding Beverly LaHayes book "Understanding your child's temprament" and have found it very useful in understanding my children and the unique way God has wired them. I look forward to reading your words of wisdom! Sandy Klamert

Cindy Seay said...

Hey girl - how are you! Florence Littauer's book "Personality Plus" is my favorite. She has a new version for couples and at this moment (it's midnight) I cannot remember the name. I will post a comment tomorrow with the exact title. Her stuff is really informative but not boring or too heavy.
Tell Lane hello!