No surprises here!

I was invited to take this personality test. I have always liked taking these and spiritual gifts tests, because I like to see how God continues to mold me. In spiritual gifts, FAITH and DISCERNMENT have always been my strong suits, the others jump up and down. In personality tests, I'm the melancholy ... or the retriever. In this particular test I am called "GUARDIAN" which makes me smile. Because that's exactly who I am. You can take your free personality test at:
http://www.keirsey.com/

Here is me:
Guardians® (SJs) are the cornerstone of society, for they are the temperament given to serving and preserving our most important social institutions. Guardians have natural talent in managing goods and services--from supervision to maintenance and supply -- and they use all their skills to keep things running smoothly in their families, communities, schools, churches, hospitals, and businesses.

All Guardians share the following core characteristics:

•Guardians pride themselves on being dependable, helpful, and hard-working.
•Guardians make loyal mates, responsible parents, and stabilizing leaders.
•Guardians tend to be dutiful, cautious, humble, and focused on credentials and traditions.
•Guardians are concerned citizens who trust authority, join groups, seek security, prize gratitude, and dream of meting out justice.

Guardians can have a lot of fun with their friends, but they are quite serious about their duties and responsibilities. Guardians take pride in being dependable and trustworthy; if there's a job to be done, they can be counted on to put their shoulder to the wheel. Guardians also believe in law and order, and sometimes worry that respect for authority, even a fundamental sense of right and wrong, is being lost. Perhaps this is why Guardians honor customs and traditions so strongly -- they are familiar patterns that help bring stability to our modern, fast-paced world.

Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right. Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution. Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap.

Guardians make up as much as 40 to 45 percent of the population, and a good thing, because they usually end up doing all the indispensable but thankless jobs the rest of the population takes for granted.

There are 4 types of guardians: Supervisor, Inspector, provider, protector. I have to pay to see which one I am, but I know me. And I believe I am provider/protector. Some famous guardians are:

Art & Entertainment/Sports/Journalism/Literature

•Louis B. Mayer (Provider)
•Jimmy Stewart (Protector)
•Andrea Mitchell (Protector)
•James Herriot (Protector)
•Fred McMurray
•Ed Sullivan (Provider)
•Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Protector)
•Barbara Walters (Provider)
•Larry King (Provider)
•Dan Rather (Supervisor)
•Mike Wallace (Supervisor)
•Vince Lombardi (Supervisor)
•Judith Scheindlin (Supervisor)
•Laura Schlessinger (Supervisor)
•Jack Webb (Supervisor)
•Thomas Hardy
•Andy Rooney
•Oscar Levant (Provider)
Politics/Government/Military
•President George Washington (Supervisor)
•President James K. Polk (Inspector)
•President William Howard Taft (Provider)
•President Harry S. Truman (Inspector)
•President Richard Nixon (Supervisor)
•President Gerald Ford (Provider)
•President Jimmy Carter (Supervisor)
•President George HW Bush (Protector)
•President Leonid Brezhnev (Provider)
•Queen Elizabeth I (Supervisor)
•Queen Elizabeth II (Inspector)
•Queen Victoria (Inspector)
•King George VI (Protector)
•Tsar Nicholas II (Protector)
•Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (Supervisor)
•Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
•Justice Thurgood Marshall (Inspector)
•General Omar Bradley
•General Bernard Montgomery (Supervisor)
Business/Industry/Finance
•Warren Buffet (Inspector)
•Sam Walton (Provider)
•Ray Kroc (Provider)
•John D. Rockefeller (Inspector)
•Roy Disney (Inspector)
•Armand Hammer
•J C Penny
•F W Woolworth
•William K Kellogg
•Charles Post
•Andrew Mellon
Science/Education/Humanities/Philosophy/Religion
•Brigham Young (Supervisor)
•Thomas Hobbes (Supervisor)
•Rose Kennedy (Supervisor)
•Mother Teresa (Protector)
•Rosa Partks (Protector)
•Clara Barton (Protector)

My favorite quote from a Guardian is:
"Take responsibility for your life. If you're a victim, it's your fault. Stop being a victim. Get a grip!'
Judge Judith Sheindlin (Supervisor)

What's it like?

I smile as I look at the pictures of this friend's new hair-do, and this one's weight loss, and this one's new clothes. The confidence they show makes me happy for them and for me! I'm so glad I'm their friend!

I often wonder though, what's it like to be pretty. So pretty that you don't mind pictures being taken of you. So pretty that you don't take bad pictures...and when you do, everyone says it's awesome. "You've never taken an ugly picture" I say... and that's the truth.

I look at my pictures and all I see is my lazy eye, my double chin, my scraggly hair and the lack of confidence that oozes out of every pore.

I clap for my friends as they show their latest artwork. It is awesome. So absolutely breath-taking... looks like a photograph...looks real. Then I look at mine. It looks like a painting.

I pray for my friends as they go through perils of life. They ask me to pray and I do. I can do that.

I go to the throne room and bow before the King.

He tells me before I can pray for them, I must deal with my own junk. Daughter, beloved daughter, you are made in My image. You are perfect. I don't see what you see... I see the inside.

I smile.

I ask for forgiveness and start to pray. I'm stopped again. I'm reminded that each of us are given talents...some show, some do not. But we all have something we excel at. I feel His smile all over and I can't help but smile too.

I smile again.

Now?

Now He says. I pray for my friends, and He smiles.

And He smiles again.

sometimes you just have to put them on and get over it.

Shouldn't I feel that way?

I'm so glad God has made us so different. I'm certainly glad He allowed me to have the feelings I have. One thing I'm constantly working on is my core woundedness.

That's the deepest part of me. The part when something happens now, I get flashbacks of being broken many years ago. We all have a core wound. We all have that one thing (some have more).

This past Sunday something happened that took me back to my core woundedness and I felt like the person who was picked last to be on a team. The little girl who didn't belong. The outcast. The lonely girl who didn't make friends and was afraid to speak up.

It's amazing to me how satan knows that button to push at such a time. What's even more amazing is that God has taught me to recognize when that button is pushed and He has helped me to know how to act and react.

I must admit, my initial reaction was knee-jerk and hateful. But if I would have stayed in that frame of mind, I would have missed an excellent sermon. And then it was a duh thing. I needed to hear the message... and a worthless imp tried to take that away from me.

I also teach a class. After the worship time, I had to face the very person who brought me to my knees (metaphorically, of course.) I wanted to let her know she was wrong to do me that way.

But God...

I love those words.

What was meant to harm, turned into good. As I began to teach my lesson, forgetfulness stepped in and the grace of God overwhelmed me. I must set aside me... and just brag about Him.

My latest painting

This is my 2nd oil painting. I have just a few 'touch-ups' to do. Gregg Williams has been teaching me and another lady how to paint with oils. I've painted with watercolors before...and that's like the total opposite of what I'm doing now. I have to erase everything I know about watercolor so I can paint in oils.

I'm very pleased with this. Who knew I could paint a straight line????

Had fun doing the splashes last night. I painted with sound effects. Sorry it can't be heard in the painting!

Not a Popular Feeling

Yesterday as the verdit for the murder of little Caylee Anthony was read, my first reaction was "Oh my goodness."

Then the relationship kicked in that I have with Jesus. I try to keep Him forefront in all my thoughts and emotions... my opinions and my 'feelings.'

First, we don't know all the facts. Probably never will. But the media would want us to believe one thing. The truth may be totally opposite of what we read and hear through the media (even FoxNews!)

Second. This is what we should believe. God is merciful. Mercy. The jury looked at the facts. Twelve of Casey Anthony peers judged her. They, instead of using their feelings, saw the facts. Mercy.

Third, someone murdered a little girl. Whether it actually was Casey, we will probably never know. But this one thing I do know. God will have the last word. And in that... we should rest.

Casey Anthony needs Jesus. She needs Him in the worst way. And we need to pray that we would have the privilege to love her enough to show her The Beloved Savior.

As I pondered all my thoughts, I began to see the picture on the big screen from last Sunday. An American Medic, carrying a wounded warrior to safety. That warrior being carried was not just a warrior...he was the enemy. An Iraqi solider.

The media was screaming to the medic to drop him. Leave him to die.

The soldier...I'm sure in a most dignified manner... shot the media a hand signal and said something like " &*##, he's wounded and we're Americans."

Consider yourself carrying Casey Anthony from harm's way. She is wounded...and she's an American. Let us join together and pray.

1. Pray that God's mercy would overwhelm the responsible party who caused the death of little Caylee Anthony and that there would be a confession and justice for an unspeakable murder.
2. Pray that Casey Anthony would recognize God's mercy in her life.
3. Pray for the healing of the Anthony family. It is a broken dysfunctional mess.
4. Pray that God will get the glory.

Lastly, Jesus said in Matthew 7: 1-5
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Where There is Forgiveness...There is Freedom

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