Week 5: Gender & Family Life

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The world "would have us believe men and women are so alike that our unique gifts are not necessary, or so different we can never hope to understand each other. Neither is true. Our Father knew exactly what He was doing when He created us. He made us enough alike to love each other, but enough different that we would need to unite our strengths and stewardships to create a whole. Neither man nor woman is perfect or complete without the other. Thus, no marriage or family... is likely to reach its full potential until husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, men and women work together in unity of purpose, respecting and relying upon each other's strengths." Sheri L. Dew

I love this quote. It teaches me that when God created us to be different as men and women, HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING. We live in a world where there are many different messages about gender. A few that I've seen and heard are the different stereotypes for men and women, feminists marching for "equal opportunity", men who put down women because they are the "superior sex", women who hate men and think that they're all the same, gender dysphoria, people like Bruce Jenner getting a sex change, statements like "I was born gay", "boys will be boys", "you throw like a girl", etc.

It amazes me the stereotypes, confusion, and hate that there is about gender. It amazes me because in this world, men and women NEED each other. We need each other to have children, we need men's strength and women's nurturing abilities, we need men's ability to focus and women's attention to detail. I could list so many more reasons why we need each other, but simply put, men and women can accomplish things together with their differences better than they would be able to do on their own.

I've seen this from my parents and their marriage, and now I'm experiencing this in my own marriage. My husband and I have similar temperaments, beliefs, families, experiences, and humor, but my favorite part about our marriage is our differences. Crazy, right?? But really, I couldn't imagine a marriage where my husband wasn't different than me. Conner and I balance each other out and when we are together, When I tend to overthink things and worry, Conner brings me back to reality and helps me see the big picture. When I struggle with motivation to study or go to work, he is my cheerleader encouraging me to do things that can seem hard for me at the moment. He has a great motivation to study and focus that sometimes, I just don't have. When we go to the gym, he loves to lift weights and strengthen his upper body while I love to workout my lower body so we'll help each other work on our weaker areas. When I struggle with anxiety, he is there, calm and steady.  Conner and I respect and love each other's differences, BUT we encourage each other to grow and develop as individuals. I am a better person because of my husband and our differences.

To finish off my thoughts for tonight, I am so grateful for the differences that bring men and women together. I'm grateful that God knew exactly what he was doing when he created us. That he created us to be partners. I'm grateful for the men and women in the government, in leadership positions, in religions, and societies who use their strengths to strengthen others. I think that when the world tends to focus on the big and small differences between men and women, it's important to recognize that there so many things in common that we have. 

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