Thursday, September 3, 2009

Anecdotes and the four types of people!

The Four Basic Personality Types

some personality types are more emotional than others.

CHOLERIC
born leaders. their strong personality wants them to be in control. strengths are that they often get things accomplished! weaknesses: BOSSY. they are often very goal-oriented and motivated by new ideas and challenges.

note from author: when the Lord gives me a project, i get all stirred up about it and i go tell my husband, who has a different personality than mine called the...

PHLEGMATIC
they show little or no emotion at all. =.= and much logical

scenario: when joyce gets all exited about something, her husband Dave will go: "We'll see." and she says: "At times like this I just wanted to hit him, until I learned to understand him. I was being emotional, and he was being logical. I was looking at the excitement side, and he was looking at the responsibility side of the issue. I used to yell at him: 'Can't you get exited about ANYTHING!??' (LOL) 

We would go into Charismatic churches, and i would go..."wow! Did you feel the presence of God in that place?"  And Dave would say, 'no i didn't feel a thing.' He wasn't basing the experience of God by his feelings. For a long time, I thought the man was emotionally dead. (LOLOL)"

phlegmatic people need to excerice their faith and make an effort to show some emotion. for the sake of the others whom you are in a relationship with, you need to stretch yourself. that way, you are operating in love.

SANGUINE
the most emotional type, they are bubbly and seems to bounce. they tend to get on the nerves of a choleric person, but they tend to not notice as they are often so consumed with their energy and fun. they are not very disciplined. do you think they'll worry about forgetting their car park? no, they'll feel that its so funny. now they've got a new story to tell the next time they bubble in!

MELANCHOLY
the total opposite to sanguine-very neat people, plan oriented. however they have the most trouble with depression. they are the deep people, the thinkers, the organizers. they believe there is a place for everything, and everything has a place.

**
note: most of us have a combination of both of more personality types.

(Joyce Meyers, 1997)


1a How to Be Not Led by Your Feelings

intro
"emotions" in Latin roots means ex-movere, means "moving away".

(ever wondered if there's some evil one out there who wants to move you away from what you supposed to do?-well, that's Satan's plan...to move you away from the will of God.)

emotions also means "a complex...strong subjective response...involving psychological changes in preparation for action"(defs from Webster Dictionary)

it is so often easier to do things when we are motivated by emotions! we often perceive the emotional support to be a "yes!" from God! 

CONCLUSION: thus we must understand the very fickle nature of emotions. if we lack understanding of emotions, Satan can use them-or lack of emotions-to keep us from God's will. 


emotions, or god?
there's always a balance needed to grow

sometimes, we need to stop giving too much to people because it can actually hinder them from growing. (like parents not letting go of their children!)

thus, to grow, emotions, must be guided by wisdom! wisdom how? by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
eg: an eaglet is born with a little tooth in its beak, to hatch itself outta its own egg. it is an arduous struggle, and some people try to help it. unfortunately, the eaglets who receive "help" usually dies not long after that.

here's an amazing Word from proverbs 4:7 i gotta add: 
"the beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom (skillful and godly wisdom)! And with all you've gotten, get understanding..."

so?

CONCLUSION frm author: 

"whenever emotions rises up on the inside of me, I test it to see if its in line with the will of god. if its not...i resist it."-Joyce Meyer
that is how we fight our emotions-by using our will to make a decision to follow God's Word rather than our feelings.



the other way round-EMOTIONLESS??
when people are hurt badly in the past, some develop hard cores and build up high walls to prevent themselves from being hurt.

but you know what? emotions are from God, to gain a conscience, so that we know if we're hurting others! if not, our "moral understanding is darkened and reasoning beclouded" (Ephesians 4:17)

this is VERY dangerous...and that's why the world tells us, "if it feels good, do it!"

BUT...
remember it is never a matter of "i shouldn't be feeling this way", BUT a matter of crying out to God and functioning in self-control.

ever got an emotional high?
there will be periods of time in which you feel more emotional than usual! like you feel depressed in the morning for no apparent reason.
that's when you gotta watch out, 'cos your feelings is gonna get hurt very easily.
and these things happen...because w/o going into trying times, you will not learn anything. 
remember god says that he will never allow any more to come upon us than we are able to bear (1 Cor 10:13)

ever been to something so exiting and you returned home, wishing it would remain that way?
(rachel says i did..lots of times!)
thing is, too much of emotional highs, will wear us out emotionally. 

sometimes after an emotional high, we need to REST and RECUPERATE. zzzz...


manic depression = moving from one extreme emotion to the other
health experts have discovered this term, and concluded that balance is the key.
thing is, we have to learn to manage these extremes to acheive this balance!
what people usually do when they're emotionally down, is that they will 
1. act out of character (extroverted person become quiet, vice versa)
2. because they rather do so than reveal that they're depressed to others. (aiya, don't bother about me ar. i'm upset now, so that's why i'm quiet)

answer: we should be honest about how we feel with people. don't say nothing! because you can cause serious confusion among the people who are around you. (they think they made you mad)

worse, negative thoughts may be planted in their heads.

people will always respect a person who is straightforward. and the devil always want us to be guilty and condemned by our emotions, so that we are not able to control our emotional upheavals in the future.


the price for catering to our emotions
thing is, there are a lot of verses in the bible about the consequences of catering to our emotions. but i think this sums it up:

god still loves a person who is an emotional wreck =) he's not happy with the lifestyle we're in, because he is unable to do what is supposed to be done in you.

if you had lots of $, and you had a kid who's always led a spendthrift lifestyle, with addictive habits, you can't give your inheritance to him, because you know it's going to go faster than you will say jack robinson!

final note
"when faced with any difficult decision, wait until you have a clear answer before taking a step that you may regret. Emotions are wonderful, but they must not be allowed to take precedence over wisdom and knowledge. Remember: control your emotions, don't let them control you."

(Joyce Meyer, 1997)