What in the World Is He Thinking? - Focus on the Family Africa

What in the World Is He Thinking?

By Tom Tufts

Julie bites her lip and leans back against the couch as she struggles with her last algebra problem. She glances at the clock. It’s the appointed hour. Her heart is beating so fast and loud that she can hear her pulse pounding through the veins in her neck. And then, it happens.
The phone rings. Six-year-old Mikey yells, “I’ll get it!” and makes a dash for the phone.

“No way! This call’s for me!” Julie cries.

The two cross paths in the family room, which proves almost fatal for Mikey. Julie puts a National Hockey League cross-check on her little bro, nailing him to the coffee table. She pauses to raise her hands in triumph, but is brought back to reality by the second ring of the phone. Three more leaps and Julie is there. She sits down, adjusts her hair, pauses and takes a deep breath. After another ring she picks up the receiver and in her best Jan Brady voice says, “Julie residence, Miller speaking.”

And then Rob speaks! After some rather awkward chitchat, he gets up the courage to ask Julie to go out for pizza and a movie with him Friday. Trying to suppress the combination of anxiety and excitement she’s feeling in her stomach, Julie agrees to go.

The Big Day
Friday arrives, and Rob and Julie head off for a great evening. Afterward, they go to the Cholesterol Factory for pizza and to hang out with friends. Rob’s friend Brian asks about the movie he saw. In typical male fashion, Rob responds, “Well, there was this good guy and a bad guy and this pretty girl. The good guy beats up the bad guy and gets the girl. . . .”

Julie’s friends ask her about the film. “Well,” she begins, “there was this lady named Molly who had a little gray dog and lived in a white house with green shutters on it with these pretty little yellow flowers all around and. . . .”

Rob interrupts. “There was a dog?”

What’s Happening Here?
A guy and a girl can go to the same movie and leave the theater with two similar, yet varying, stories in mind. They can wander through the same moments and situations in life and not see the same world. Why does that happen?

It’s because God gave guys and girls different operating systems. While we have many of the same characteristics and can accomplish many of the same tasks, the ways we interpret situations and get jobs done are usually different.

If you’re sitting in Baskin Robbins pouring out your heart to both a guy and girl friend, you’ll probably hear the guy say, “I see what you mean.” But the girl will most likely say, “I know how you feel.” Guys are wired to operate through visual stimulation and input, and girls tend to be more in touch with feelings and emotions. Neither “condition” is good or bad — just different.

So next time you’re thrown for a loop by a guy who didn’t even notice the cute dog in the movie you just saw together, remember that God, in His infinite wisdom, made him a little differently than He made you.