Cooties to Cuties

Remember when you were young and cooties actually existed?! Remember playing with your friends in Kindergarten and thinking that the boys (or girls) were so gross? I remember always running away from those stinky boys and wanting to stick with my friends. Why was it like that?? Now, boys are my favorite people to hang out with! (haha) Solution: WE WERE SO DIFFERENT and didn't appreciate those differences. The boys would always play in the mud, play sports, or see who could jump the farthest off of the swings, when us girls would play house, or make paper dolls, or just sit and talk. Why would we want to play with the boys when we could have fun doing "better things"?

As we get older, I think it becomes more and more obvious that boys and girls, males and females, are very different. Generally speaking, we have different mannerisms, interests, hobbies, feelings, taste buds, styles, bathrooms, shoe sizes, strengths, weaknesses, physical abilities, physical features, opinions, skills, hair products, family roles, hormones, brains, etc. THE LIST COULD GO ON FOREVER. FOOOORRRREEEEVVVEERRRRR!!!

So why is it that when we were younger we saw these differences as gross, but now we actually enjoy interacting with the opposite sex???
It's because we compliment each other! Think about it... When we females lack certain characteristics, (generally speaking) men can fill that gap. And vice versa. My parents are a great example of how both genders need each other to be successful. My dad is a dreamer. He is one that will come up with a wild and crazy idea, and spur of the moment decide that it's going to happen. He doesn't always think through his ideas, but knows that it sounds fun, so why not do it?? (I've got some of that in me.... Thanks dad...) My mom on the other hand is a thinker. She is the one that hears his ideas and knows all of the reasons why it may not be the best idea, or she knows exactly what must be done to make it happen. She thinks through all of the options and logistics. They complete each other. Without my mom, my dad would have all sort of spontaneous adventures planned, just to find out that it may not work out in the end. Without my dad, my mom wouldn't get to experience as many of the fun spontaneous adventures that they've had together. They need each other.

This is true in so many different ways.

David A. Bednar said:

"By divine design, men and women are intended to progress together toward perfection and a fullness of glory. Because of their distinctive temperaments and capacities, males and females each bring to a marriage relationship unique perspectives and experiences. The man and the woman contribute differently but equally to a oneness and a unity that can be achieved in no other way. The man completes and perfects the woman and the woman completes and perfects the man as they learn from and mutually strengthen and bless each other."

I love this quote! Think about it... We PERFECT each other! I can't wait until I am married and truly get to experience this for myself. I look forward to the day when I can grow in ways I didn't think possible, from my husband and his example. I look forward to being a mother, with a husband that I adore, and raising our children together with our distinct differences. I know I wouldn't be the same person if it wasn't for the different attributes that my parents contributed to our family. Both roles are so important in this life, and in the next.

Let us all be grateful for the differences we have! Let us look at them as ways to learn and grow, and become who we were each meant to be. Men and women aren't meant to be the same! We were born different to be different! Let's keep it that way! These differences are such blessings, if we will only take a minute to sit back and realize it!

For you country lovers out there! 

"A Boy and a Girl Thing"