Scientists tell us there are no two snowflakes that are alike: however, no one needs to tell us that there are no two people who are exactly alike!
Every individual is unique. Psychologists seem to agree that different personalities are the result of a combination of physical difference (body-type, gender, physical characteristics) and environmental influence (birth order, socio-economic factors, cultural influences, parenting styles, education, etc.) Theologians would add that we all have different God-given gifts (Roman 12:6). Since every person is different from every other person, getting to know various people is an adventure in itself!
In 400 BC, Hippocrates, the Greek physician, proposed that there are four basic personality types that distinguish humans from each other. Hippocrates identified: the sanguine (happy-go-lucky), the Choleric (hard driving entrepreneur), the Melancholic (who sees the sadness in life more than others), and the Phlegmatic (who is not bothered by much of anything).
Today, psychologists have further broken these into twelve personality types. Of course each of us are actually a combination of all the personality types put together. However, even though we all have traits of depression, paranoia, emotionally, avoidance, self love, dependence, passive resistance, and perfectionism, most of us have one trait that is stronger, or that "stands out".
The Bible has examples of all the personality types. For example, Paul was a perfectionist, while Peter was emotional, and Thomas was questioning or paranoid.
Every personality trait has both strong and weak points. The perfectionist has the tendency to do a great job on the one hand, but is never satisfied on the other.
The emotional person is caring and empathetic, but may also be "touchy".
The paranoid person is careful; however, the caution may spill over into cynicism and mistrust.
It is important for each of us to identify our strong points and build upon them. In fact, the Bible encourages us to make such self-assessments.
"I'll say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned" (Romans 12:3).
As each of us work on the strengths in our own personality, the best example to follow is Christ (Romans 12:29). It's not the difference between people that causes trouble; it's the indifference!