VOICE OF TRUTH FOR TODAY
Celebrating Our Uniqueness
What’s your favorite personality assessment? Maybe you know your letters, your number, your wing, your colors—or perhaps someone has informed you that you’re a lion, otter, golden retriever, or beaver! 😂
We’ve taken plenty of them ourselves. And while assessments can give us helpful language, they ultimately point toward something Scripture already tells us: God intentionally created us differently. Psalm 139 reminds us that each of us is wonderfully made for a purpose.
Diversity is beautiful, but let’s face it—it can also be challenging! The more closely we work and live with others, the greater the potential for misunderstanding. We interpret situations through our own personalities and experiences, sometimes assuming our perception must also be someone else’s reality.
Years ago, while consulting with a ministry experiencing conflict, we completed the Birkman Method personality assessment. What followed was eye-opening—and admittedly a little anxiety-producing! We learned about our own needs, stress behaviors, and the ways we were misunderstanding one another.
We also discovered something difficult: sometimes greater understanding reveals that an unhealthy situation still needs to change. After much prayer, we courageously ended that consulting relationship.
Years later, we trained in the same assessment and now use what we learned to help others understand themselves, communicate better, resolve conflict, and value differences.
Romans 12:4–5 reminds us that although one body has many members with different functions, “in Christ we, though many, form one body” (NIV).
Healthy relationships don’t require everyone to think, communicate, or work exactly alike. They require humility, self-awareness, vulnerability, and the courage to value what makes another person different.
God’s intention was never sameness.
It was unity within beautiful diversity.
So learn yourself. Learn others.
And rather than merely tolerating differences, begin celebrating them.
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Excerpt from Voice of Truth Magazine
“Courage in Action” by Drs. Jennie Cerullo and Marcia Ball