by RTF Staff Writer Jamin Goecker

In case you haven’t noticed, guys and girls are different.

I’m sure you’re thinking, No! Really? What gave you that idea?

The truth of the matter is, God made us different for a reason. He didn’t make man and woman back in Eden and say, “Oh my. What have I done? These are completely different!”

Let’s have a look at some of the areas where we’re different. Before we start, let me say every guy and girl out there doesn’t fit in the generalized description I use. That’s all right. This is just a kind of framework to give you an idea of what the other the gender thinks. Everything I say about one gender applies to some degree to the other, but there’s simply more emphasis in the gender I’m talking about.

First, what are guys and girls looking for in social situations? From my personal experience, I’d say guys are fighting for respect and girls are looking for acceptance.

For example, what happens when one dude starts kicking a football? It’s almost guaranteed another guy will try to kick the ball further than the first. Guys like competition because if they win, they get a sense of respect.

Girls, on the other hand, like feeling accepted. How many movies out there depict a group of girls that are really close-knit? What’s the worst thing that can happen in one of those movies? The girls start bickering and hate each other.

Girls attach a lot more importance to developing healthy relationships because they want to feel accepted, appreciated, and valued.

Speaking of relationships, there’s another area where we’re different, particularly how we evaluate our relationships.

For instance, guys usually evaluate how strong their relationships are by how many things they’ve done with a person. That’s why you’ll see in military movies the illusion to a term called “brothers in arms.” Because these guys have been through a lot together, they feel closer.

Girls value their relationships by how many intimate things about themselves they share with each other. If a woman can share anything in the world with a friend and be 100% confident it won’t go anywhere and she’ll still be accepted, then that relationship is considered top dollar in her mind.

Now, how exactly do we decide the value of something?

Well, for guys, we usually base our judgments on the value of something by how useful it is.

For girls, they usually say something is valuable if it is “cute.” In other words, they use sentimental value to decide if something has worth. If you think I’m wrong, let me ask you how many craft shops there are with little angels and kittens made up of odd materials. Do many guys willingly set foot in those stores?

We could go on for a while like this, but you get the idea. What was God thinking when He made us so different? Well, I can tell you one thing for certain: He knew He would never be bored.

I believe God uses the strengths of both genders to benefit us, to make humankind a balanced creation. So remember that the next time someone from the opposite gender says or does something that doesn’t sound normal to you.

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Jamin Goecker is an avid writer and enjoys playing Frisbee, playing guitar, hiking, hunting, and just about anything related to the outdoors. Contact him on Facebook or at his blog (scribe-jamin.blogspot.com)