I guess I need a colorful coat

So, as part of the year of personal discipleship, Highlands has joined the Monvee program. The program is taylored to a person's individual personality and learning style. A big part of the whole process is seeing what the program determines about your personality and, of course, what Biblical character you are paired with.

A few people have shared what Monvee said about their personality, so I thought I'd use this forum to do the same. After finishing my profile I was curious to see what character I'd be paired with. There, sitting on the computer screen, it said — Joseph.

Of course, I immediately assumed Joseph of the Old Testament — you know the guy that angered his brothers, got a slick coat of many colors and got sold into slavery. Then someone in the office suggested it might be New Testament Joseph — which of course threw my whole contemplation of what it meant to be "Joseph" into question. Fortunately, after some digging, I determined my first impression was right. Not that I exactly knew what to do with it. So I decided to do some reading.

Here is what Monvee had to say about me being a "Joseph": it noted I am comfortable with adversity, have a strong moral compass and am comfortable with what I believe and defending my beliefs with others. At that point, I was feeling pretty good. But it wasn't all positive.

It also said I was overly concerned with making sure I'm not perceived as dishonest and somewhat of a perfectionist. Okay, that hit a little close to home, but it was probably more true than I wanted to admit.

But it was the last part that threw me for a loop. It ended with this: "While this leads to a life guided by principles, it can make trusting your feelings or going with your gut difficult." This didn't sit well with me. While I agree I try to be guided by my principles, I feel like I'm in tune with my "gut" as well.

But as I started to think about it, I realized that often I do side with reason, sometimes to my detriment. I tend to obsess over big decisions, weighing the pros and cons over and over again before making a decision. I realized I also have a tendency to second guess myself, especially my gut instincts.

Reason and guiding principles are important, but sometimes you have to make a decision in the moment. That's something I'll be thinking about this year. Hopefully for those of you who take part in the Monvee program the experience will provide some food for thought for you as well.