Vive le Difference!

Opposites attract!  When you put batteries in a flashlight, the opposite ends of the batteries must touch in order for them to work. Looking at Rich and me this week has been like looking at two batteries.  Thinking back to when we started getting to know one another, I told our mutual friends it would never work because we were too different.

In contemplating our language learning styles this week, I remembered how Rich would embody the personality of our first people group overseas, while I would get the sentences structured more cleanly. He is more street sense where I am book sense. I love grammar, but he can play the part. Together we can really get the point across.

I want to have the right answers, where as he loves to play devil's advocate. In fact, it is that devil's advocate that helped me know he was the man for me. He was the first man I ever dated that actually tried to engage my mind, which made for interesting road trips, and wanted me to really be able to articulate what I believe.

We have lots of differences. He was country, and I was city. He is watching wrestling, and I am visiting museums.  He was "Rocky Horror Picture Show", and I was "Gone with the Wind."  He is working in the theater, and I am attending the theatre. He reads fiction, where I prefer reading self-improvement books. I can be very task oriented, but he is very people focused. He is laid back and relaxed, and I have been known to want to get the most out of every possible moment. These differences give spice and variety to our lives. It would be so boring if we were the same.

They also make us better as individuals and a couple. I need him to get me to relax, and he sometimes needs me to help him get going. On vacations, he makes sure we have down time and enjoy the moment, while I enjoy planning fun and educational things to do. I need him, and he needs me.

I find it interesting that God intended it to be that way. God created man in His image and said it was very good. It was not good for man to be alone, so God made a helpmate for him.  The helpmate was also made in the image of God but was created different from the man, physically and otherwise. It was their physical differences that would enable procreation and the continuation of the species. Ephesians commands the wife to respect her husband and the husband to love the wife. It commands those things because that is what the other needs. Men want to be loved, but they need to be respected. Women want to be respected too, but they need to feel loved. God created them male and female.

Enjoy the differences!
Vive la difference!