#70Days - What are your strengths?

Day 8

The devotional thought that captures my thinking today: "We are cosmic!"

I'm reading Eugene Peterson's, Practice Resurrection. It's a study of the book of Ephesians. If you haven't read any of his books, I can highly recommend Leap Over a Wall (a study of David), and Run with Horses (a study from the life of Jeremiah).

Ephesians 1:4 says, " For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." We are chosen ... "It wasn't a last minute thing because he felt sorry for us and no one else would have us, like a stray mutt at the dog pound, or an orphan whom nobody adopted." No, he CHOSE us before the foundation of the world, before creation ... we are cosmic. We have been in his mind and in his plan from eternity. We derive worth from his choosing, and our lives have meaning, have purpose because we are chosen!

We are cosmic!

Yesterday I skimmed through the book, Teach With Your Strengths.  It's been on my shelf for 2 years. I've taken multiple Gallup "tests" in interview processes and was somewhat disinterested in taking another one.  Of course the ones I took in interview processes did not reveal results.  So yesterday, I skimmed the book and took the test.  The test simply asks you to choose between two statements ... which one is most like you.  There are a LOT of statements.  In the end, the online test tallies your results and tells you about five themes that were identified as your "top" themes.  Here is a list of all 34 themes I found online.

I don't know about all 34 themes but the ones identified in my top five do reflect who I am fairly well.  According to the Gallup test I have these talents:  intellection, connectedness, learner, deliberative, and achiever.  I am an introvert, and introspective.  I think a lot.  I like to mull ideas in my mind ... and write about them in blogging.  I believe that all things are connected and nothing is coincidental.  I love to learn, I love the act of learning ... I read, study, peruse the Internet, read blogs and tweets.  I am deliberate in my choices, I weigh my options. And I work hard ... possibly too hard.  I struggle with finding that balance between relaxation and work.

While I already knew these things about myself, it was interesting to see them identified by a set of questions. And I wonder how having these particular traits identified can help me in my learning/teaching.  

Have you taken this test?  In what ways do you use the results?