My strengths are also my weaknesses

They say that our strengths can also be our weaknesses. The attributes that make us admirable and fun to be with can also be tragic flaws that cause us to accidentally alienate ourselves from everyone we love.

I fail at lot of things. I'm pretty good at failing, truth be told.

Uplifting, right?

Michael Jackson said it best when he said: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror." (He was probably doing some bizarre before he said it and, most likely, he went back to being absurd as soon as he was done. That's okay. Rest in peace, Mike.)

With that said, I've got some confessions to make.


I'm a leader. Even if I do my best to shirk positions of leadership, they inevitably find me. I don't know if it's totally in-born or if it was seared into my brain by my parents (probably a mixture of both). Either way, it's very much who I am. It can be a very positive and useful quality.

Because I'm a leader, I try to always control things. That can be very negative, at times, and it can cause those I love to be repelled by me.

I know this and I'm working on it.

I'm not a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon. That said, I've always been reasonably smart. I could read at two years old. Not the way a lot of two-year-olds read where they just point and guess. I knew the letters and was sounding them out. I was having quasi profound conversations when I was approximately three. I learned how to play guitar, piano, bass and drums with very little instruction (I took a total of three guitar lessons). I play solely by ear, and can essentially hear any song on the radio and play it. I taught myself how to cut my own hair in college and have never paid for a haircut since. I taught myself how to do graphic design and have completed numerous websites. I'm a middle school teacher who had absolutely zero training prior to being hired. I gave a good interview and have been learning (and hopefully teaching) on the fly ever since.

Because I am smart, I think I'm always right. I'm not. I can be condescending and patronizing. I hurt people with my words when I should be building them up. I stick my foot in my mouth several times a day. I can be accidentally rude. I hurt feelings and I hate that about myself.

It's an issue that I'm aware of. It's being dealt with.

I can be charming and smooth with words. When I was in high school, I sweet talked my way out of more than my fair share of trouble. I've always had an ability to get people to do what I want them to do, most of the time. It's why I've made a decent basketball coach. I'm good at finding psychological pressure points and applying the necessary amount of gentleness or force.

Because I know I have the gift of language, I have a tendency to try to use this to my advantage when I know it's wrong. I talk my wife out of things when I should let her have her way more. I can be selfish and my verbal abilities allow me to convince people to feed those urges. It's ugly. I'm not proud of it.

I know it isn't cool. I'm trying to change.

The reality is that I need to remember who the giver of the gifts is. Any positive attribute I have is from God and should directly reflect Him. When I get into trouble with those gifts, it's only because I am trying to use them to spotlight me and not Him.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? Confession is good for the soul. Try it out.