Friendship & Personality 👯‍♀️

Heey Sis,

How are you doing? Please do read all the way to the end.

A few of you enjoyed the last newsletter and some of you messaged me about how difficult it can be to build Godly communities. Here are some of the things that can help depending on your personality, which can affect how you make friends.  

Personality type can play a significant role in finding and cultivating meaningful relationships. As we may already know there are introverts and extroverts. Contrary to popular opinion, introverts are not asocial nor are they friendly loners who lack social skills. They simply have different social needs and preferences. Although introverts are known to prefer solitude and find energy in alone time, they also enjoy deep emotionally intimate meaningful relationships and will have a smaller circle of friends when compared to extroverts for this reason. Introverts may find it more of a challenge to make new friends and build relationships. If you are an introvert, the best way to connect with people is to glean into your strengths. Engage in activities that you enjoy and be open to meeting people who have similar and specific interests to you – it is easier to make conversation in this way. For example, if you like music or play an instrument, join the church choir or be an intrinsic part of worship in your home groups (bible study) as it is a smaller setting. Recognise that not everyone will understand you and that it is okay to not connect with everyone even when you feel you have tried to put yourself out there. Pray about your friendships and ask God to lead and guide you to the people that are for you – it is less exhausting this way as introverts have a reduced social energy when compared to an extrovert. 

Extroverts tend to draw their energy from social interactions and enjoy spending time with other people. They tend to have a lot of social confidence and are quite sociable, friendly, and talkative. Extroverts love to meet new people and will have a wider social circle compared to introverts. As extroverts are more outgoing, finding and creating new friendships is not tasking as it is a part of their DNA. Extroverts may fall into the trap of having many superficial friends without taking the time to develop deep and meaningful connection. To avoid falling into this trap, create space for a smaller circle within your wider circle of friends. Identify individuals through prayer, who you would trust enough to share the vulnerable parts of yourself with.  

Whether you are an introvert or extrovert, God has created us uniquely and we all have something wonderful to offer the body of Christ. God uses the uniqueness of our personalities to serve Him and to build great relationships for His kingdom movement. We only need to be tuned in to what His heart is saying, and, in this way, we will be able to find and cultivate so many KINGDOM BUILDING relationships. There is nothing more so wonderful than cultivating relationships that encourages and builds us up in our Christian faith. There is also nothing more encouraging than having relationships where God is constantly speaking in your friendships – and even more so, in alignment to the Word He has placed in your heart.  

TOP TIPS ON FINDING AND CULTIVATING MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS  

• Be intentional – building anything meaningful takes intentionality, without that it won’t be last.  

• Go out – go to events that align with your interests and believes. There are many Christian events happening all over, seek them out and plan to go  

• Be open – Let people approach you and don’t be suspicious of everyone  

• Get to know people in your church – if you are someone that leaves church as soon as service is over, you are not helping yourself  

• Create space – if possible, organise events that bring people together

Click here for a free personality test.

WE HAVE A NEW FLYER 🎉🎉🎉🎉 I am super excited for this. God is doing something. Tell a friend, share, share, share and tag @bloomandthrivetribe on Instagram. You can download the flyer here.

Have an absolutely wonderful week Sis,

🩷 +💡