I hope the following lesson can be of use to youth ministries, family counselors, parents and grandparents as well as family devotionals or family home evenings.
A lot of companies will have sales promotions to add variety to their marketing. For example an ice cream shop may feature blue berry cream as a flavor of the month to promote their store. This can be compared to how many of us can make an impact in other’s lives simply by the type of person we are. A person who is has traveled a lot or has had a lot of experiences may feel more comfortable in talking with someone outside of their nationality because they may already be familiar with some tips of the language or experienced in meeting strangers.
We can make the same comparison to how we associate with people in our neighborhood or congregation. The type of personality or person we are, may make us more approachable by others in the community who share a similar type of personality.
My invitation is for each of us to do a self-evaluation to see what type of person we are. If we are a little bit silly, sometimes, that might help a lighter hearted person relate to us than with someone who may be more solemn. The invitation is for us to take advantage of our personality strengths as we interact with other people. We may naturally ‘click’ with someone else. It is a great opportunity to establish new friendships and perhaps influence others for good. At the same time we can strive to be our best selves as we establish new friendships. Others will be able to detect if we are sincere or not.
As a private assignment answer these questions:
– When it comes to appearance, some people describe themselves in seasonal terms. Are you a winter, spring, summer or fall?
– Are you an introvert or extravert?
– Do you like meeting new people?
– If you were to compare yourself to a famous person, who do you feel you are most like and how are you different from that person?
– What is your favorite mode of communicating face to face, phone, texting, or Facebook etc?
These are just a few ideas to self-evaluate your personality type. There are others in the community and congregation who will feel more comfortable around you because of who you are. I invite each of us to interact with someone we’ve seen but never talked to before. It could be a chance to establish a new friendship.
It you have some ideas on this topic, please feel free to share them in the comment section of this blog.
