I’ve had a lot of training in couples counseling over the years. And I’m always surprised at how little is said about the differences between how men and women view life. That’s a pretty important aspect – one that we should pay some serious attention to! Let’s try a little experiment:
Close your eyes for a moment and picture a person.
Now describe that person. Chances are, one of the first things you did was identify the person’s gender. In fact, one of the first methods everyone uses to define someone is whether or not it’s a boy or it’s a girl. Sound familiar?
We start our “training” in maleness or femaleness as soon as our parents find out if we are boys or girls. This used to be at the moment of birth, but with current technology we know much, much sooner than that now.
So if we spend our lifetime “in training” to be male or female, shouldn’t our couples counselor be incorporating that information as we try to figure out the answers to our concerns? And shouldn’t it be done with the utmost respect for each? After all we are all created in the image of God.
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. ~ Genesis 1:27
p.s. We’ll talk about “the apple” next time. = )