Of all the gifts we are given by God, the one that defines us is personality. That which enables each of us to be a separate individual is the divine gift of personality. It is the spiritual vessel which holds and coordinates our constituent parts: body, mind, and spirit.
Personality brings with it our ability to make choices—human will. In a very real sense, each individual has an indispensable part to play in fully becoming a person. Personality gives us the power to help create ourselves. Our decisions determine how the personality we are given will bloom. Our choices give us the power to grow and unfold ourselves into the world.
The small decisions we make multiple times each day seem inconsequential, just ordinary choices to be patient or become angry, to listen to someone genuinely or superficially, to check on a friend or hurry on with our busy lives. But these personality decisions slowly determine the kind of person we are choosing to be. If we choose goodness, kindness, integrity, generosity, honor, and other loving qualities of deity, then we grow nearer to harmony with God. If we choose to be self-centered, we stagnate. Choosing to be like God opens the door to growth.
The second gift that comes with personality is our ability to relate to other persons. We can know other persons and be known by them. This is the precious gift of companionship. Each one of us craves to have friends, especially true and loyal friends. Without the power of relationship that comes with personality, friendship would not occur.
Out of companionship can come the ultimate prize—to love and be loved. Nothing is more nourishing to human beings than being in a loving relationship, whether it is a family of friends, a romantic partnership, or a family with children. We are at our best when we genuinely love and are loved. Our personalities bloom into the beautiful people we were intended to be.
Personality makes it possible for us to come full circle into an amazing relationship with the divine parent who gifted us with our potential and helped us to unfold into full bloom. God is a person—the pattern for all persons, the source of all personality. Our divine parent is a person whom we can love and whose love we can experience. Regardless of the vast contrast between deity and humanity, we can know and love God as a personal individual. We can actually feel God’s love for the unique individual that we are. None of us is ever alone in this universe.
The love of the Father absolutely individualizes each personality as a unique child of the Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will creature irreplaceable in all eternity….the love of God strikingly portrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakably reveals the high value which the Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his children… (12:7.9)
