You’re a rock that steadies others, die-hard strength that looks out for the weak, focus and grit that helps the rest of us show up more fully in our own endeavors. But beneath your tenacity is a tenderness that can feel unnerving. Some days you struggle to find grace for yourself within your sky-high personal standards. Can we talk about it?

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 8s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 8s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

If ever you’ve wished for a fast forward button through the painful seasons of your life, this is for you. 

You’re full of spontaneous energy and fun ideas. You help the rest of us lighten up and enjoy the adventure of life. You’re bold and bright and brilliant. We’re grateful for your contagious optimism, your eager yeses, your enthusiastic encouragement. 

Because of you, we try new things that we’d be afraid of otherwise. We also dream bigger dreams, thanks to you. You connect many a person because you have a special way of making everyone feel welcome. Thank you for the endless ways you enrich our lives!

But friend to friend, can we talk about the anxiety that unsettles you in the quiet moments? The exhaustion that takes over when you slow down? The pressure you feel to always stay positive?

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 7s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 7s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

You’re the hands holding everything for everyone, the arms keeping us safe, the backbone of community, the feet that stand for the good all. You prepare for all the things we miss or underestimate. 

Rarely do you rest. 

Even when your hands are still, you’re working out potential issues inside your head. Researching the safest option. Eliminating the unknowns.

How long has it been since you’ve had a break from the residual fear that tenses your brow and deflates your smile?

Where does worry catch your breath?

What’s keeping your mind restless when you want to be asleep?

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 6s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 6s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

This is for the planners. The methodical. The curious. The articulate. 

This is for those of us who prefer a little more time to process, who sometimes (maybe most times) want to blend in, who run out of words before the day is done.

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 5s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 5s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Some days you feel like you don’t fit in. At times, you worry you’re flawed and broken. Often, you fear you’re too much. And we hate that for you, because what we see is someone who reflects Jesus’ tender emotions, His genuine care for us, His reassuring presence.

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 4s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 4s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

The insecurity you’d do about anything to keep hidden, the way you’re always on a 10 but still feel behind, your fear of rejection–leave it with Him. You don’t have to carry it anymore. 

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 3s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 1s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.
4. Guided journals I recommend: Stuff I’d Only Tell God by Jennifer Dukes Lee and Sacred Prayer by Ann Voskamp
5. For weekly inspiration, subscribe to Begin Within: A Gratitude Series.

There you are. You’re quick to see the needs in front of you, but sometimes it feels like no one sees you. 

You are more than the warm, smiling face greeting us at the door. More than the volunteer we count on for an enthusiastic “yes.” More than the way you welcome both friend and stranger with the hugs we all love. 

Sometimes your worth gets all tangled up in what you can do to serve others. Your helpfulness is a beautiful reflection of Jesus inside you—true. But let’s detach self-worth from all the things that require you to bend backwards or burn out.

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 2s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 1s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
3. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

To you, exhausted from trying so hard to be perfect, weighed down by feeling worthless, worrying about what others think of you–let’s take a big exhale together.

It’s time for a trade: The intrusive anxiety, the dreaded insufficiency, and the battle in your mind–for acceptance that doesn’t hinge on your perfection.

Links mentioned:

1. To learn more about Enneagram 1s–including what we appreciate most about you, how you can use your strengths to mirror God’s grace to your neighbors, and (for the rest of us) how we can best missionally love the Enneagram 1s we know–grab the Enneagram Neighboring Lists. Each list is available both as phone wallpaper and as a printable pdf.
2. Need song recommendations? Get my favorites HERE.
3. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.
4. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Some days you get in a slump and maybe you don’t truly believe there’s a place for you. You dismiss somewhere way down inside that God would actually want you next to Him. That He seeks your presence. 

Then you read John 14:2 and it hits hard: you are in the front of God’s mind. You’re not a last thought. Not unfilled potential. Not looked over in the slew of everyone else.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.

Underneath my slouched posture and avoidance of eye contact was the belief that my voice didn’t matter. I left speaking up to those whose words were more effortless, less awkward. I thought that meant they mattered more.

Perhaps you can relate.

You dismiss the value of your voice because someone else can articulate it better, say it with more confidence, or couch it in more credibility. You second-guess, self-critique, self-sabotage. Because, like me, you struggle to believe, way down deep, that your voice also matters.

Links mentioned:

1. To get a short, doable tip in your inbox every week to help you get to know your neighbors, sign up HERE.

2. Read the written version of this episode HERE.