Good morning, DearHeart.

There are times I feel like I just don’t measure up. We weren’t meant to. We need each other. I’ve learned that my feeling of failing someone or failing a task … well, it always comes with a hard-stop lesson to be learned. I can’t speak for men on this, but I can speak for females … we girls can get so tangled up in the comparison game that we shut down. Can’t move. Over-analyze. Over react. And, can find we have fallen headlong into analysis paralysis. This delights Satan to no end. Because if the enemy can isolate us, then he can SO influence us. Right?

Please, someone, tell me I’m not the only one. 😳

In the late 90’s I was introduced to personality type testing, and I have been intrigued since. Any time I get to train a group for a set time, I’ve always begun with personality assessments. Personality type studies help me stay sane when life with people gets hard to handle. There are cycles of behavior with each unique personality … strengths and weaknesses … and for every weakness, when we look closely, we can find another soul close by with a strength … close enough to share life and to compensate. God thought of everything when He put us together. We are like a puzzle – we need each other to make a whole picture. In every weakness, God raises up a strength. Beautiful. What a blessing! But, when we covet the strength of another we forget His goodness. We very quickly forget our God, forget that His ways are right. As we acknowledge Him, we remember. God honors and blesses His people when we continue to recognize Him for all that He does in our lives and recognize His work in lives surrounding us. They have not been placed with us by accident. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

When you feel like you don’t measure up, remember that God makes straight the crooked places within us. Where our hearts are wounded, He makes us whole. As you and I open our hearts in the simplicity of rising into our unique personalities, admitting to Him that we are totally powerless in the areas of our weaknesses, His illumination redeems us. Very often, it comes through another soul close by.

May we realize the impact our influence as women has on our partners and children and those around us. You and I were not created to be perfect. We were created to share our strengths and weaknesses … to play a vital role in God’s story.

Wake up.

Share yourself.

Receive the gifts of another’s strength.

Go.