Love and be Loved

Take a quick sample of ten men and women. Ask them about the things that are most important to them in their marriages, regardless of their age, race, or educational background. You will discover quickly that: Men like physical features (like the shape and size of a woman, her looks, her height, etc.), while women look towards emotional features (like his sensitivity, his feelings towards her, his sense of humor, how caring he is, etc.) Men request respect and appreciation, while women ask for love and understanding. Men want sex, while women want companionship and communication. Men demand comfort, while women love luxury. These clearly show that men and women are wired differently. Our needs and requirements in marriages and relationships are different. We need to learn and apply ourselves to these needs before we can care and show love to each other the way our partners want us to. One of the greatest mistakes most of us make in our relationships is that we tend to follow the golden rule, treating others (our spouses) the way we want to be treated. We assume that our spouses are just like us and treat them just the way we want to be treated. As great and true as this principle may be, it has limited application when it comes to relationships, especially romantic relationships. For you to be at your best and meet your spouse’s marital needs, you need to take it further and move on to the platinum rule: treat others (your spouse) the way he or she wants to be treated. Men and women are different in many ways, especially in the ways we feel loved and appreciated. It is not a coincidence that we have various physical differences. In fact, our emotional and mental differences are greater than our physical differences. The word LOVE means different things to us, and it…