Core Question #2: What is YOUR character's greatest fear?

Some life application of the 3 Core Questions
Recently I presented the three core questions for character development to a Teen Sunday School class and asked them to answer these questions about themselves:

Image by STiX2000 on deviantART

What is YOUR core need...your motivation in life...and what would you do if you could not attain it?
What is YOUR greatest fear?
What incidents in YOUR life have wounded you and caused you to believe a lie, or have shaded your perception of life events?

These questions are a great tool for getting to the heart of our inner truth! I believe most people are caught up in a cycle of Greek drama, weather comedy or tragedy, hiding their true selves to cover their vulnerability. Sometimes, however, by wearing a mask people begin to believe a lie about themselves or even about the people and world around them.

Back to young Isaac Carter

I believe that the greatest fear is linked to the core need, and acts as a negative motivator in an individual's life. While Isaac's core need following the death of his parents was to watch over and protect his younger siblings and keep their family unit intact, it was broadened in adult life to protect and free his Negro brethren from a system of enslavement.

His greatest fear was a negative motivator striving to produce a positive outcome...and that was...

...the fear of losing his family
and being alone in a hostile world...

The next step is to revisit Isaac's life events and apply the core need and greatest fear to them in order to determine the lie he came to believe about himself and the world in which he lived....

Comments

Honoring our Ancestors: Free Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War

When I was first contacted last October to assist in some research for a member of the DAR who was looking for the burial ground of her ancestor, Isaac Carter, I had no idea it would lead to such a wonderful tribute--with full honors--to our free black ancestors of Craven County, North Carolina. Nor would I have guessed that I would be meeting together with Ms. Maria William Cole, National Vice Chairman Insignia, of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and a host of other dignitaries, from the highest officials of the SAR to state and local political and community service leaders, to pay tribute to these patriots. The turnout exceeded my expectation when this event proceeded on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, with close to a hundred and fifty people or more, seated on folding chairs under three canopy tents. The microphone cable lay along the wet grass and soon died out, and we, the speakers, were asked to use our "mother's voices" to make o

How Family History Writing Forces Us to Dig DEEPER

February is Family History Writing Month During the month of February, I went on hiatus from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter in order to participate in the Family History Writing Challenge. My goal was quite ambitious, but I did succeed in setting up the framework of the family history memoir, and wrote a rough draft of the opening scenes. The memoir focuses on a promise I had made to our Cousin Hattie Carter Becton in an interview, following the the 2009 George Family Reunion in North Harlowe, North Carolina. In case you missed the Challenge, you can find the posts here . The site was developed especially for writing challenges, beginning with this year's; so, you may want to go back to the first posts in the archive. March was memoir reading, research & development month Last month I continued working on the writing, but also began focusing on webinars and YouTube videos related to writing memoir. Two really great sites are National Association of Memoir Writ

Those Places Thursday -- Robert Livingston House, Little River, SC

In July of 2008 we attended the Prince Livingston Family Reunion in Wampee, Horry County, South Carolina (my husband's maternal family). During our down time we decided to take a drive through Little River where the plantation owner, Robert Livingston, had once lived. We inquired at the Visitor Center, and learned that the Robert Livingston House had been preserved as an historical landmark. The brochure we received listed several different sites that interested us, but the Livingston House was our first destination. We drove along Highway 17S and drove past the turn off for Lakeside Drive. At the next light we turned around and headed back down the highway until we came to the street. About two-thirds of the way down the road we saw a sign along the roadside: 19th Century Victorian Home for Sale. Was that the house? The number on the mail box was 4441. That's it! We got out of the car and looked around only to find that the owner was at home, and he was in the process

In Black and White: Cross-Cultural Genealogy

Search This Blog