One of the interesting things that I have had to confront while attending Seminary is effective leadership styles. There is a book I am currently reading, and though it is required, it is a fabulous book (Practicing Greatness, 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders ... I will also state that while it is written to the perspective of Pastors and the like, it is fully integrateable in all areas of personal leadership and growth). One of the sections talks about strengths... what we are good at.

A quote that I found quite striking was this: "Our culture teaches us to devalue what comes easy, so we fail to have an honest assessment of what we are good at."

So, in an effort to strengthen ourselves as individuals and a group... What are your strengths? Let us not worry about what we cannot do well... but what we CAN do well. Also, take the time to elaborate on others strengths. In this way, we as an organization can learn more about those things the we do well, thus relying upon another's strength if it is in an area where we are weak at. That is point of community!

... for example:
In myself, I recognize that I am a pretty good problem solver.

In Twinkle, I see an abundance of enthusiasm
In John, I see encouragement and support

In myself, I see a lot of creativity and ideas.

In John, I see patience. Lots of it.

In Bean Si, I see loyalty and love, especially for family. She has that wonderful mother bear instinct that when any one of us gets messed with, she is right there to defend and support us.

In Itchy, I see a determination that others might view as stubbornness. Neither of which are bad, in my eyes.

In Meph, I see wisdom. He's been around long enough to know, but isn't so full of himself as to not admit there are still things he needs to learn.

What she said, and:

In Simon I see compassion and charity. He sees the needs of others and fills them.

In Twinkle I see a strong sense of duty.

For myself, tenacity and a craving to learn.

My strengths (and generally my weaknesses) are that I am intuitive, a fast learner/good at book learning, independent, self-assured, stubborn, have a critical eye, am driven to excel in what I choose to do, and am largely even-tempered. I prefer to reserve judgement on others, as I am still getting to know everyone and none of you are shallow or simple and thus can't be easily labeled and put into a small and handy box.