Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five day a week daily devotional where we share the

word, prayers, and our heart. I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me,

which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent. Know thyself, that ancient Greek expression,

is one most of us have heard, and without diving into all its intended meaning and complexities,

it is what our show is about today, really sort of coming to a place of understanding for

who you are as a person, what makes you respond and react and interact through life, how you do,

and why all of that even matters. It does matter, and it matters especially in matters of the soul.

It's part of our soul care discussion this week, and I'm ready to dive right in.

So if you follow me on social media, you know I talk sometimes about the Enneagram, and I've said before I'm an eight, which is the challenger.

No surprise if you know me or follow me on social media. I step into some tough discussions because

that's just honestly who I am. I used to not like this about myself. And really even more than that,

I didn't understand it. I didn't understand why when I was younger, I couldn't keep my big mouth shut about matters of conviction. Why when others could sit and nod and be quiet? I was about to jump out of my skin and I literally had to say something and speak up or I would be sick to my stomach. True story. I wouldn't even want to enter the discussion, but I would. For years, I wanted to be someone else.

I even tried it for a while.

I would literally make myself hold back and be quiet, and it would then often feel like I was being

disobedient to God and being someone I wasn't, and really just felt all wrong.

Complete honesty here, sometimes I still wish I weren't the challenger.

It's tough. It's a tough place to be at times to feel that pressing need to take on a cause

and speak up, especially when it's met with pushback and criticism, which I sometimes get.

No one likes that. But I've learned it is literally who I am. And so rather than fight it,

which is a waste of my time, I need to ask God to control it so it doesn't control me. Because

all of our personalities have the Holy Spirit controlled beautiful side, if we let him, and all of them

had the capacity to go really wrong when we try to run them ourselves.

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