No Regrets

Have you ever felt sorry for your reaction or response to a situation or person? I have. More often than I’d like to admit, I opened my mouth before I thought.

As a certified personality trainer, I learned the four personality types:

• The Popular Sanguine – the loud, colorful life of the party
• The Powerful Choleric – the strong, decisive leader
• The Perfect Melancholy – the neat, organized well put-together person
• The Peaceful Phlegmatic – the easy going, calm guy or girl who makes no waves. 

And then to my dismay, I discovered that I was the one I didn't want to be.  I am the Powerful Choleric. The strengths of this personality type are decisiveness, leadership, strength, and confidence.  Those positive traits are valuable, but when I read the list of weaknesses, I shuddered. Imagine seeing these behaviors in myself: Pride, arrogance, pushy, superior, domineering, overbearing. I didn't want to be that person!

As I studied the personality traits more and more, I learned that I could maximize my strengths and stop behaving in my weaknesses. It helped to know that Christ had all the strengths of all four personality types and none of the weaknesses. So if I could live in my strengths, I would be able to be more like Jesus.

There is another reason I want to live in my God-given strengths and that is that I want to live with no regrets. The question I asked at the beginning of this post was whether or not you have reacted in a way that you regret.  Words have escaped my lips from my mouth that I wish I could take back. My eyes have rolled and then I've been ashamed. I have ignored people and situations when I should have listened and cared. And don’t even mention the times I could have been kind but instead was determined to be right! And then there’s food. How I wish I hadn't eaten that extra piece of cake or that second bowl of ice cream. How many times have I kicked myself for choosing the fat, gooey food instead of the fresh fruit?

So today I’m making one of those “forward” decisions.  I am deciding before. I am deciding now.

I will live with no regrets because I will ask God to help me respond to people and situations with grace and kindness. I will tell my brain to stop me before I act like a bully or demand my way. I will make “no regret” choices when I sit down to eat.

No regrets.

Karen Porter speaks and writes from years of experience and a deep abiding in God’s Word. In her spare time, she continues her life-long search for the perfect purse. Learn more about her at www.karenporter.com.