“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7 NASB
“The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.” Genesis 2:22 NASB
I don’t know about you, but I find the wording of the NASB version interesting and even humorous! Unless you’ve lived your entire life under a rock you already know there is a huge difference between men and women. God designed us differently, to do different things, on purpose! Women were fashioned by God with a specific, special calling. Likewise, men were formed with a unique and unmistakable mission. I am deeply disturbed by our society's attempts to make ALL things equal, even something as different as a man and a woman.
For starters, women are more emotional than men! Some people consider this to be a negative. God considered it to be a necessity. The emotions that are sewn into the fabric of a woman are absolutely crucial to our nurturing nature. And, these natural inclinations don’t just start when you become a mother. You're born with them. Some women won't become mothers in a physical sense, but they have the capacity to care for another as if they were. We minister to others through the outpouring of our emotions. We are the world’s primary caregivers and this is a beautiful responsibility. We can't fulfill this calling unless we are amply supplied with qualities like compassion, tenderness, mercy, grace, perseverance, wisdom, strength, understanding... Please note “drama” is not on this list! If we are to succeed in our calling, we must control our emotions rather than allowing them to control us. (This will be discussed further in a future post called "Drama Queen.")
What about men and their emotions? They are not overly supplied with them because having excess emotions doesn't assist them in the mission they were assigned to. Men have a God-given drive to lead, provide and protect. Can you just imagine somewhere in the distant past, an overly sensitive man given the task of hunting and bringing back food for the family? Instead of providing sustenance for his family, his emotions might well have prompted him to let Bambi run free! Men need the ability to make decisions without an overflow of emotions clouding their judgment. We, on the other hand, need to be able to make important decisions with an overflow of emotions impacting our judgment.
Even in today’s culture, a man’s greatest need is respect. A woman’s greatest need is security. To me, these facts only further prove the roles God designed for us. Respect is earned, it requires action. Security is a state of being, a feeling. I know there are definitely exceptions and deviations to this general rule of thumb. I also know there are those who hate the mere mention of a difference between what each gender is capable of. But, I’m not talking about our capabilities here girls. I’m talking about our calling! We are all capable, wonderfully and fearfully made human beings. We are all equally special, equally important and equally valuable. But, we ARE different.
Women’s thoughts, emotions, words and actions are endlessly intertwined. We can feel many things all at once. Men, on the other hand, are much more compartmentalized. They process differently and usually have one emotion at a time. This can be extraordinarily frustrating when one gender is trying to understand the other. A date is nerve racking enough by itself! Then we have to go and add all this “men are from Mars, women are from Venus” nonsense to it. Right here is a great place to point out an obvious fact: if you are sexually involved with someone who is not your spouse, you are not having the same emotions about it. A woman’s heart becomes intricately and almost eternally attached to a person with whom she is having a physical relationship. The male mind and heart do not process the situation the same. Please don’t think I’m throwing males under the bus. I’m not. I’m just pointing out a very stark difference between the two. The lesson here? Don’t have sex before marriage! Your heart will never get over it.
Here are a few other differences I thought of that are just for fun, but oh, so true!
1. Decorating
choices. Have you ever seen a bachelor
pad? EWWW!
2. Packing choices. If
you give men and women a destination and tell them each to bring what they “need,”
the woman shows up with enough luggage to clothe a small village. A man shows up with a backpack. We have to bring that stuff, “just in case”,
right?
3. Word choices. A man
and woman walk into a room where two friends (also a man and woman) are waiting. The two women giggle, hug each other, discuss
their outfits, their hair, their nails, what’s new, interesting finds on
Pinterest, etc. The two men just nod at
each other and say “Sup?” All four have
said the exact same thing!
4. Grooming product choices.
Some men wash their hair with a bar of soap. That’s
really all I need to say about that. :-)
5. Driving choices. When
women are lost, we ask for help. When
men are lost, they stay lost. To them,
there is no valiancy in admitting that one’s sense of direction has
misfired. This particular difference beautifully
illustrates a man’s need for respect and a woman’s need for security.
Girls, we are God’s fashion statement! We grace the world with the God-given talents, abilities and strengths etched in us by our loving Creator. We can and should learn to appreciate and embrace our differences as men and women. We know that we have been given specific roles to play…whether or not either of us (men or women) fulfills our calling is entirely up to us!
Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
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