Praise God for the unique strengths, abilities and temperaments He has endowed us with. Writing these down on a piece of paper and contemplating the possibilities they offer can be really encouraging, and I recommend it!
One thing that's easy to miss about our"gift set" is the fact that with every gift comes weaknesses that correspond with the strength. I think you could safely say that your strengths are indeed your points of vulnerability and we would be wise to "know ourselves" in these things...to carefully follow God's uniquely designed regimen for us, making sure that the pitfalls of our "gift set" are minimized or balanced. The Apostle Paul speaks to this in 2 Corinthians 12 when he mentions his "thorn in the flesh".
God's plan for us in this is clearly outlined in James 1, and I especially love the New English Bible's (Oxford) rendition of this. Actually, I'm going to quote it, adding a few words of my own in the hopes that God's plan for "dealing bountifully with us" and His intended result, will be clear.
When you face trials of many kinds, count yourselves supremely happy because you know that God, heaven bent as He is regarding your new Life in Christ, has launched His uniquely designed regimen for your personal improvement, as He promised. (Yea...I think....) Your faith will be tested, strengthened and will birth fortitude in you. God knows we'll need it, being that we're in this intensive theraputic process that can and will take us to the limits of our strength, courage and endurance. But, if we give fortitude full play in us, we will go on to complete a "balanced character" and we'll find that the glaring pitfalls of our strengths and abilities will be tempered, avoiding the down-side of them. We'll not fall short nor be found deficient in anything. We may be a bit nervous about the regimen / process, but we'll sure like the result, and so will everyone around us!
So in your deficiencies, ask for His Widsom, for He wants to give liberally in this endeavor. And so, you'll find that this life of faith and singlemindedness will keep your course straight (righteous) and steady. You'll do well over the "long haul". God will be pleased and He'll get the Glory He deserves and intended for us.
Balanced character, God's intended objective. I don't know about you, but, in spite of the discomfort I'll encounter, I'm going there.
Blessings dear ones!
Mitch
