Confessions of an ESFP

Ok, most of my family and close friends know I hate (HATE) personality tests. The first time I took the Myers-Briggs (I refuse to link that...you can google it on your own:) test in 92ish, I was on staff with Youth With A Mission and we took it so we could learn how to work together. I thought it was so dumb. I have no idea why, but I remember our Director saying, your personality type hates to take these tests. That sent me over the edge!

My husband is now working toward getting ordained as a Deacon with Anglican Missions in America (AMiA) and we had to do a marriage assessment for that. Of course that entailed 5 personality tests, no joke. One was even a Spiritual Gifts test, all it really tested was my cynicism, which I am sure my Myers-Briggs fully explains:) Anyways, I have to say...I think I learned something...I don't know who Myers or Briggs are, or how they even came up with all those questions, but it helped me. Well, it helped part of me:)

My personality type was/is E (extrovert) S (sensory) F (feeling) P (perceiving). Henry is almost the same except for the end which his is J (judging). Mine is supposably *the performer*, which maybe explained me at 15, but not really now. What it did help with is...homeschooling.

What it explained to me is that I like things open ended, not structured (though my head likes to think I want to be structured), want to consider ALL possibilities, nothing set in stone because of unknown variables, flexible, likes adventure, takes risks, etc. This explains me to a T! Its actually what drives my poor hubby crazy. I even yell at him for writing in his calendar in ink, cause something might change! I NEVER write on ANY calendar in ink...its forbidden!

Link to homeschooling with four children, which really needs to be scheduled, organized (times 4), time slotted, written in ink, goal oriented, big picture minded===STRESS. And not just any ol' stress, MY stress! Something that our counselor that was in charge of giving and interpreting all of this said, was, you need to mesh your personality type with homeschooling four children. You need to lower your stress.

No duh! was what I was thinking! Thats the only thing I KNEW walking in there! It actually had been my heart's cry!

So, now I at least feel like I have a mission. I need to have a schedule that serves my children to the fullest, but doesn't stress me out and HELPS me to serve them. I am going to work on that over Advent as we take a break from the rigorous schedule that we usually are working on. I need to also trust God in this. I need to see it as a tool and not *who* I am specifically (my type wouldn't allow that anyway:).