4. HABIT OF HONORING

<Your Signature Strengths>

WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE (LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE)?

Are you one in a million? No. God made you even more unique.

After forty years of deep research, Dr. Donald Clifton of the Gallup Corporation wrote, 

”There is something that you do better than 10,000 other people. Everyone is world class at something.”

Researchers with the Gallop organization researched human strengths for over 40 years. They discovered 400 strengths in top human achievers. They boiled the list down to 34 “Signature Themes.”

With an assessment to help people discover their top five strengths called the Strengthsfinder tool, they found these breathtaking results.

There are only 10 other people in the entire United States with the same top 5 strengths in the same order that you have. 

Just think of it—you are 1 in 30 million!

The chance of meeting another person with the same top 8 strengths in your order is 1 in 33 BILLION. 

Just think of that—there is no one in world history like you!

The researchers made a profound conclusion. These researchers discovered that it is best NOT to fix weaknesses, but instead to feed the strengths of others.

The Bible word for this is “honor.” Know each other by our strengths.

READ Romans 12 (Consider what honoring others does.)

WRITE your SOAP journal first, share with friends.

HOW CAN WE BRING OUT THE BEST IN OTHERS?

The Strengthsfinder tool has been an enormous help to bring out the best of leaders and build great teams at Evergreen Church. Here’s how.

Humans tend to see a familiar face, remember the weakness of that person, and then identify them by that forever.

Why don’t we know others by their strengths? That change of mind would cause us to cooperate with God’s design for their life.

When we know the strengths of each other, we can stop pointing out weaknesses and trying to fix them. Instead, we can feed the abilities of each other.

Here are five confessions we can make to ourselves to bring out the best in others.

1. I’M GOOD AT A FEW THINGS.
“…Think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3).  It is good to affirm how God designed you. Tools like the Strengthsfinder assessment can help us to know what our strengths are so that we focus on our abilities. 

2. OTHERS ARE STRONG WHERE I AM NOT.
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function…”  (Romans 12:4). Knowing the top five strengths of the people closest to you can build a team, heal a marriage, or even make a better home. 

3. I VALUE OTHERS BECAUSE I NEED THEIR ABILITIES IN MY LIFE.
“Honor one another above yourselves” (Romans 12:10). Giving respect to others in the church is built on an awareness of our limitations and the need we have of the strengths of others to improve our lives.

4. I WILL NOT KNOW OTHERS BY THEIR WEAKNESSES.
“…As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). Everything changes when we make a deliberate choice not to know others by their faults. The Bible calls this “forbearing.” If forgiving is releasing others from the past, then forbearing is letting them go in the future.

5. I WILL KNOW OTHERS BY THEIR STRENGTHS.
“Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9). Our love for others has a ring of truth about it when we dwell on their potential, pray it into being, and feed it in every way we know how.

If you have taken the Strengthsfinder assessment, what are your top five, Signature Strengths?

What are the strengths of those around you?

VERSE OF THE WEEK

…Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. Romans 12:3 

PRAYER

Father, in a world that looks for flaws, may I be used by you to bring the best out from others. Amen.


FOR MORE INFORMATION

  • To discover your Top Five Signature Strengths take this online assessment. A fee payable to CliftonStrengths applies.