No Boxes for Us!

Poor Jack-in-the-box. Every time someone winds him up, he is expected to pop out of the box with the same enthusiasm, the same expression, and the same pattern of behavior. How BORING!!!

Eons ago, I wrote a Christian musical for pre-teens. One of the songs encouraged them all to grow spiritually even as their bodies were growing and changing. After all these years, I still stand by that advice and believe it is applicable for all ages.

Without change, things grow stagnant or atrophy. If you don’t believe it, look in my mirror!

This and the next few blogs are my open letter to my granddaughter who heads for college next month. Like any young adult who faces the future with uncertainty, she is trying to define herself and make plans for who she will be. Shoot! I’m 70 and still trying to figure out what I will be when I grow up!

She and I were discussing the ultimate fruitlessness of taking personality tests. That’s been a thing to do for years, and I have taken everything from the ennegram (which I do not recommend) to tests that were meant to define my spiritual giftings. There is a certain amount of wisdom in knowing my natural tendencies, talents, and personality traits. However, the boxes the tests put me in just didn’t fit. My perception of what I am did not meet the expectations of others or fit their conceptions of who I am or what I should be. Like everything that tries to put me in a box with a set ‘recipe’ for life, I haven’t taken to it too well. I am much too complex a being for that! (And stubborn. And bossy! Not to mention a know-it-all!)

The tests’ refusal to define me as wise beyond measure and TOTALLY sophisticated has tripped my trigger for years!

These days, I go along with the —— philosophy. I am self-identifying as a talented, svelte, sophisticate who is wise beyond measure! To heck with the tests! (Use your imagination for the ——- symbols. I’m just replacing some of my totally politically incorrect verbiage!)

Back to the tests. For example.

The spiritual giftings test showed that I have absolutely NO sense of mercy – which is probably truer than I like to admit. However, I also consider myself a soft touch when someone genuinely needs a hand … with the criteria the person being helped will be under the authority of a financial trainer. Like I say, God has money I haven’t spent yet. Since His fountain of abundant blessing hasn’t dried up yet, me and the old man can continue to bless others. (But only when it is appropriate. Oops! There goes my no mercy trait again!)

Then there are tests that show I am a mix of personality types. They may as well just call me a crazy old woman and call it even. But since I was that way when I took the tests in the dark ages before I got old and gray, the tests must have predicted a lifetime of mixed up traits. Hmm. So maybe the tests are truer than I thought! Just kidding. I’m smarter than I look. Or at least I hope so.

Anyway, to my precious granddaughter – here’s an idea.

Make a list. (I love lists!)

List all the personality traits that you want to have or become. (Dead sexy better not be on your list, young lady!)

Ask God what personality traits He desires for your life.

Study the Scripture to see what virtues are listed there.

Ask God for help in growing in those virtues.

Have fun becoming who you are meant to be – Lyric outside the box!

Be blessed, my precious!

Grammie

Jeremiah 29:11 TLB For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Hans Urs von Balthasar said “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you are becoming is your gift to God.”