Tonight in youth group we talked about boys and girls… and our differences. You see, in Ephesians, Paul tells wives to submit to, or respect their husbands… and obvious none of my middle schoolers are married, so we had to look at the basic issue. Why does Paul tell wives to respect their husbands? Well, because they don’t need to be told to love their husbands, we already do that. We get emotionally attached easily. What we don’t always do is respect our husbands and their abilities, we don’t always trust them to do laundry, or load the dishwasher right… right ladies? So on a middle school level… girls can be better friends to their guy friends better by showing them some respect, deferring to their better judgement, rather than just being emotionally attached to them.
On the other hand, Paul tells husbands to love their wives… three times in fact. Why doesn’t he tell them to submit, or respect, their wives? Because they already do. In my experience, husbands tend to defer to their wives judgement on plenty of issues. What the need to be reminded to do is to show the emotional, gushy side of themselves… not to run from the tears and emotional vomit. On a middle school level… guys can be better friends to their female friends by letting them be emotional and showing them that they are valued for more than just their physical appearance.
We need different things. We are created equally… but very different. We are created to complement one another, not to imitate one another.