Roots by the River

Women are much more sexual than men. For men, sexuality is reduced to sex itself. The feminine conception of sex is the big picture, past when the kid graduates from college. The male conception is not the big picture at all. Civilization depends on the men submitting their sexual cycle to the woman’s. If women submitted their sexuality to the men’s, we would have a world full of nothing but pirates and biker gangs. Men must submit to their wives in this respect if there is to be any kind of stability at all. It is only when men submit this way that the family becomes possible. If the man removes himself, you no longer have a family the way God designed. Men who sleep around have a problem controlling their sexual desires. Women who are promiscuous are not in it for the sex; they are in it for the security, and they are using the only commodity they have that can get men to pay attention. Promiscuous women are lonely, frightened women. Promiscuous men have trouble with self-control. ...

Next, men and women have different needs . Women need to be affirmed regularly. They need repeated expressions of love. A man might be tempted to say, “I told you I loved you when we got married. Didn’t you think I meant it?” To a woman, the words “I love you” are not just information—they are food. And women need this food on a regular basis. Women also need communication, much more than men do, and what they often want to talk about is the relationship. “How are we doing?” Women need communication like men need sex.        Women also need security. God created men to take responsibility; He created women to want to be protected and made secure. One of the reasons I was strongly attracted to Bessie was that she was so independent. She was the principal of a Bible school in Japan, and through a Japanese contractor she had designed and constructed a dormitory for women. She seemed very stable and self-reliant. I said, “That’s the kind of woman I want. I do not want ...

Men and women also talk differently. We are enough alike that we can communicate with each other—sometimes. After being married to my wife Bessie for more than fifty years, I still have difficulty understanding her. When Bessie uses a pronoun, the antecedent might have been given two weeks ago. And I sit there trying to figure out what this pronoun is referring to. Bessie uses lot of pronouns, but only one verb. It’s the word do in different forms. “Will you do the baby?” I have to figure out whether this means feed the baby, change the baby’s diaper, put the baby down for a nap, or give the baby a bath—all of these are communicated by do the baby . It helps if you have extrasensory perception! Occasionally, I’ll figure and figure and figure, and then I’ll guess wrong. This is not a fault in Bessie; it is just a difference in how we communicate. Men, have you ever asked your wife, “Is anything wrong?” and she says no, so you go merrily on your way…only to find yourself living in a ...

  This is a multi-part series. Installments will be posted each Monday and Wednesday. Men and women are different, and their differences are not just physical. It is important to be aware of a few basic areas where the sexes differ from each other, as failure to recognize these can cause unnecessary problems in your marriage. First, men and women think differently. This is part of how God made us. Generally speaking (buckle up, because there are many generalizations coming in this paragraph), men think analytically, and women think intuitively, although sometimes women can do both. Women have multitrack minds and can juggle many issues at once. Women are more likely than men to think in circles, and consequently are more prone to anxiety. Women are also more likely to think emotionally rather than logically. The problem comes when men think that women are being illogical or not thinking right because they are thinking differently ; or when women assume that a man’s analytical thin...

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us!” (John 3:1). “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O Lord, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart” (Psalms 36:5-10). Our prayer for you is that you would experience the fullness of God’s love in your own life and be able to share that love with others. Praise God for His faithfulness! This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge . If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com . We would love to hav...

  This post was written by Bessie Wilson. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?’” (Matt. 18:21) We know Jesus’ answer: “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (v. 22). The King James renders this “seventy times seven.” Regardless whether it is seventy-seven times or four hundred ninety times, it is obvious that Jesus put no limit on the times we are to forgive. Then Jesus recounts a remarkable story. It pictures a servant’s enormous debt which was canceled because of the mercy of his master. But it also pictures the minor debt which this same servant would not cancel towards a fellow servant. Not content with choking him, he also put him into prison. The other servants soon informed their master of this cruel behavior. The master withdrew his cancellation of debt and turned the servant over to the jailers “until he should pay back all he owed” (v. 34). Jesus’ words at the conclusion of ...