A Timeless Reality

Oy vey.  I still have not gotten any better at knowing how to interact with guys so they don't get the wrong idea, but I'm learning!  Sunday when I was at Barnes & Noble I did manage to find a book that I absolutely devoured--- For Young Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Lisa A. Rice.  This book is written based on surveys and interviews with guys 15-20 years old.  


Some of the stuff I knew, but a lot of it was stuff that I had never thought of before.  Something that really stood out to me is that girls are based on wanting to be loved and will allow themselves to be disrespected as long they get love, whereas, boys want to be respected even if that means they'll be alone and unloved.  In general, I agree with this premise, although I think I fall somewhere in the middle.  Yes, I like to be loved.  But if it comes down to making tough choices, I'll do the right thing, even if it means I'll be hated for it.  God has wired me in such a way that I don't care that much what others think about me.  Sometimes this can make me kind of callous, but I like to believe that I also manage to be sensitive to others' feelings, but maybe that's just wishful thinking...


Anyways, while I'm in this single stage of life, I want to get better at being a good friend, both to girls and guys.  I have a good mix of guy friends and girl friends, which means I need to learn how to speak both "guy language" and "girl language".  While I do have my fair share of problems with speaking girl language (remember, sometimes I can be callous and insensitive), right now, my main problem is this gosh-durn-guy language.  There's a reason that most of my guy friends are in relationships.  If a guy already has a girlfriend, then it makes being friends, and ONLY FRIENDS, much simpler.  We can talk about sports, cars, or whatever and there is no emotional drama crap involved.  But on the other hand, if a guy friend is single, at some point in our friendship I have to make my intentions clear--- ONLY FRIENDS.


Right now, I'm really working on how to understand how guys interpret the things I say or do, and it's really confusing!!!   Like I mentioned before, guys speak the language of respect, and that's something I'm learning to understand.  I'll write more about that some other day.  Until I understand how this whole stupid guy-girl dynamics work, I'll try to keep my mouth shut so I stop putting my foot into it!  TTFN as Tigger would say...