S.H.A.P.E. Assessment Results

Thank you Rachel Heil for taking the SHAPE Assessment. We encourage you to meet with a Church Leader that you respect, to go over your results, so that they can help you discover a place to serve in the church and/or community, and also to help you fine-tune your 5 Main Focuses/Priorities listed at the bottom of this email under the ‘Wrapping it up’ section. May God Bless You!

[S]piritual Gifts

Here is how your spiritual gifts scored (in alphabetical order):

59%

43%

78%

62%

75%

40%

18%

31%

43%

To see descriptions on the Spiritual Gifts and how you can use them to further Christ’s Kingdom on earth, visit this link.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I love to encourage others and help people be the best that they can be using my own strengths.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I am always forgiving because I know that just as God forgave me, I should not judge others and deny them forgiveness.

This gift’s evident in my life in the following ways:
I always take time to be appreciative of the blessings that God has given me, and part of being appreciative is sharing my blessings and gifts with others.

[H]eart

1. Cooking plant-based meals! I love to learn more about nutritious eating, and cooking meals with lots of healthy veggies and ingredients is so fun for me.

2. Teaching/volunteering for others, especially kids. Most of my volunteer extracurriculars involve teaching children, and I hope someday to join Teach for America!

3. Spending time outdoors, whether at the beach, on a hike, or just in my backyard. I love connecting with nature and experiencing God’s presence around me.

Kids! I love working with any age group, but I’ve done most volunteer work with pre-school to kindergarten children and I absolutely love it.

I am always saddened when people in the church don’t practice love and acceptance towards ALL people, and oftentimes express (political) views that don’t extend love towards people different from them. God calls us to love everyone and never judge, and watching some people in the church think they are superior because they happen to be Christians really distresses me.

Marriage/family issues
Poverty/hunger
At-risk children

[A]bilities

Student and online elementary school yoga instructor

Volunteering/working with preschool children, hostessing at a restaurant

Working with kids, teaching others, listening/encouraging others, and giving advice

Nothing

Giving advice

[P]ersonality

50-50 Extrovert/Reserved

50-50 High/Low Risk

Peace Maker

People Driven

Leader

Routine

Your Primary was ‘The Retriever’, with your Secondary coming in as ‘The Beaver’, and here are the descriptions of your Personalities, and how they can be used for God

Golden Retriever- Good at making friends. Very loyal. Retriever personalities do not like big changes. They look for security. Can be very sensitive. Very caring. Has deep relationships, but usually only a couple of close friends. Wants to be loved by everyone. Looks for appreciation. Works best in a limited situation with a steady work pattern.

Strength: Accommodating, calm, affirming
Weakness: Indecisive, indifferent, unable to express emotional, too soft on other people
Limitation: Seeing the need to be more assertive, holding others accountable

Beaver- Organized. Beavers think that there is a right way to do everything and they want to do it exactly that way. Beaver personalities are very creative. They desire to solve everything. Desire to take their time and do it right. Beavers do not like sudden changes. They need reassurance.

Strength: High standards, order, respect
Weakness: Unrealistic expectations of self & others, too perfect.
Limitation: Seeing the optimistic side of things, expressing flexibility

[E]xperience

So when I first got to USC, I was still kind of investigating Christianity. I was planning on joining some specific non-religious clubs, but they ended up not really being what I was hoping for. So still being curious about Christianity and having this new free time, I joined Freshman Connection but was slow to get involved, because I didn’t know how much I was going to need God and this community.

But that definitely changed in the spring when I started experiencing a series of disappointments. I was struggling with stress and anxiety to be successful in school. I was getting ready for surgery, which meant doctors appointments where all I heard was how broken I was. And I even broke up with my boyfriend of over two years. But I remember one night at Freshman Connection where I forced myself to go after a long day of disappointing doctors appointments. And my suitemate Zoe started talking about her journey of trusting in God through the challenges she faced. And that night, I truly felt God speaking to me through her. Now I’m sure Zoe didn’t know that God was going to use her to speak to me then, and I definitely didn’t know either. But I realized that God uses people in our lives to show us things, and the most important thing we can do is just show up. And once I did that, I started to see how different things (Zoe being my suitemate, the disappointments I was facing) all those things weren’t accidents—they were part of God’s plan.

And that’s not to say that now, having committed my life to Christ, the challenges are gone. I’ve had a rough summer, not only with quarantine and not going back to school, but with my parents having marital issues. And this time last year all these disappointments probably would have broken me, but because of God’s spirit in me now, I know they won’t. So because of Challenge and God, I realize that I’ve gone through probably the most difficult year of my life but also the most spiritually meaningful one.

n/a

Rooming with Zoe and my other suitemates freshman year

Dating my ex-boyfriend during high school and starting to go to church with him and his family

Talking to my grandma about her experiences with Christianity and the mark God has left on her life

My parents’ marital problems

Dealing with negative body image issues/a troubled relationship with food

Listening to some of my family’s political views that I often feel are non-inclusive

Wrapping It Up

The Challenge: Based upon your S.H.A.P.E. Assessment above (the way God wired you), If you knew you couldn’t fail … and ‘lack of money, or time’ was not an obstacle… list your Top 3 Things you would ‘Focus’ your Life on, next to #1 Loving God & #2 Loving Your Neighbor (these would be your ‘3 God-Sized Dreams’ for your life)?

1. My Relationship with GOD

2. My Relationship with Others

• Putting Your Spouse First
• Your Kids Second
• Everyone Else After those

3. To work in human rights law in a third-world country

4. To organize a volunteer organization that works with underprivileged kids

5. To always be available to give advice and encouragement to others around me