Happy Friday, friends! Here are some random (and hopefully funny/inspiring) ramblings from my week.

I am spending this week at a training on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (hopefully by the end of tomorrow I will officially be certified! woohoo! If you’d like to talk personality type, hit me up, pal). The training is at a hotel across town from where I live, but luckily very close to where some of my close friends live. So, I decided to be their extra roommate for the week. They decided they would allow this.

First of all, THIS IS SO FUN. My Mom (hi Mama) would never have let me stay at a friend’s house during the school week. Now I am 26 and can make these decisions for myself (and also we’ve gone to bed really early so it’s fine, Mom!). I wrote this while sitting on my friend’s floor eating popcorn while they all finished work and read and laughed. They also talked about how nice it is to see me in the morning before work, so that’s extra cool. One of them made me grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner (#lovelanguage). So weekday sleepovers are a new favorite source of JOY for me.

Like I said, I have spent my week learning about personality types. The MBTI is a personality assessment that assigns everyone a four letter “code” based on how they responded to the questions. The codes are things like ENFJ (mine), ENFP, ISTJ, etc. It has been like “drinking from a firehose,” as they say (alot of information), but has also been super interesting. I’ve been amazed at how complex we all are. This personality code is just one small part of who we are as people, but it gives us insight into why we make decisions the way we do, how we process information, how we get energy, and more. We also learned about how different types act when they are stressed, what our “blindspots” are, and what our “type” can bring to a team. I have learned how things that can be very life-giving for others can be exhausting for me.

Learning these things helps me be able to offer myself grace instead of wondering why I do the things I do. I can stop thinking things like, WHY AM I INSANE? I also am learning how I could lean into and trust my personality more. For example, it hasn’t been totally natural for me to allow others into my “creative process” – but I am doing it right now by asking my friends for help in my blogging.

It also helps me understand why others might do things that don’t make sense to me. It helps me offer grace to the people around me, and to stop and ask if there is a reason someone might approach life differently than I do. I am beginning to understand why I have friends who date someone for a year when I can tell that immediately that it is not a good idea.

Our instructor mentioned that one of the books based off this assessment is called “Gifts Differing,” which is a reference to 1 Corinthians 12, a passage about all our different spiritual gifts. Again, we are all complex – having different personality types but also different strengths, backgrounds, etc.

One of my favorite things about this assessment is that it is related to the idea of “individuation.” The very-loose-not-technical-Kallie definition of this is becoming fully you. I believe that God wants this for each of us, and He hopes that we will embrace our fullness of life in Him. I don’t believe this is self-focused; I really believe God wants us to become more like Him, through which we become more of ourselves. This personality assessment is a cool manmade (actually, WOMANMADE! #holla) instrument that can help us understand more of who God made each of us to be.

I love learning about assessments and these ways of knowing ourselves better, because it shows the creativity and majesty of our Creator. I also love that He has gifted us all in different ways – like how he created some people in such a way that they could figure out this complex personality thing and make it understandable for people like me.

So my words of “wisdom” for you this week: Have a sleepover with your friends. Learn more about yourself. Ask people who know you really well what your blindspots are. Know that you are beautifully and wonderfully made. You, friend, are made in the Image of the Creator God. You are complex (in the best way), intricately formed and individually planned. Nothing about you is a mistake. You are more than your flaws or failures, more than your successes, more than even your personality type. Remember this when you start to question yourself and your identity. Find people who will remind you of this when you forget.

Love, hugs, and personality types,

Kal.