I recently read an article that refutes the notion that women typically speak more words in a day than men do. Seems some researchers think gender has little to do how much folks talk.
I have just one question for these researchers: What planet do you live on?
No matter what the eggheads say, I know what I know: While men certainly can make noise, they don’t generally use as many words as women do.
I know whereof I speak. My husband is most definitely a guy (a fact not to be taken for granted these days), as are my two children. When I was a kid, I was a bonafide tomboy and hung tough with the guys in my ’hood. I have two brothers and, you guessed it, no sisters.
So, while I’ve had many female friends, teammates and coworkers over the years, and have coordinated my church’s women’s ministry since dinosaurs roamed the earth, I’ve consistently been immersed in the world of males up close and personal for a long, long time. I have not, however, been assimilated.
I’ve never gotten the hang of answering questions with a monosyllabic grunt. Most women feel life just needs more explaining than that. I also don’t spit, leave the toilet seat up, flex my muscles in front of the bathroom mirror, or think that bodily noises are hilarious. I prefer movies that are long on character development and dialogue, and short on car chases and shootouts.
I am basically an alien living in a guy world. And I know dads surrounded by daughters who experience the flip side. One told me he goes out and sits in his barn when estrogen levels soar in his house.
A writer who is the mother of sons described what happened when she brought out an heirloom doll to see what her three-year-old son would do with it. Naively thinking the little fellow might simply play with the doll and get in touch with his “inner nurturer,” the mother was shocked when her son threw the doll down on the floor and said, “I’m going to chop your head off.”
Only then, she said, did she finally understand the wisdom that had been passed on to her by another mother of five boys: “As the only woman in your family, you’ll always be a bit of an alien in your household. Your underwear will always be different than everyone else’s.”
Your underwear and darn near everything else, I would add. An alien, indeed.
The Bible says that Christians are aliens, too (1 Peter 2:11) — aliens who embrace values, priorities, and a worldview that often seem downright bizarre to those in this world who don’t share our faith.
Followers of Jesus Christ are supposed to feel like fish out of water on this earth. Sojourners, travelers, aliens, ambassadors in a foreign land – many metaphors describe our temporary, uncomfy status here.
Men and women are different. The differences go way beyond the number of words we speak, and the differences are a good thing.
Christians should be different from those who don’t follow Christ. And that’s supposed to be a good thing, too, as we’re called to be “salt” and “light” in this world.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” – 1 Peter 2:9 (King James Version)