Opposite Gender Friends While Married

[Carrikature]

and in both of them it's unhealthy for your partner to be able to control who you associate with.

You're both going to have insecurities and the like, it doesn't mean you have the right to force them onto your partner.

(Also, I'm not actually angry, I just used the "Screw that" for effect )

A person can choose how to take something. Sometimes my wife tells me that I should take a course of action that I don't like. Often she is right, but that is not an attempt to control. Sometimes I see an interaction as having more meaning(s) than she does because I am a male. She doesn't instinctively think like us, so she may miss something. That goes both ways. We (should) respect each other enough to take their wishes and intuitions into account.

I am not overly jealous, but a male asking a female for a phone number has too many implications. Innocent enough, on the surface, given the context, but too many alternatives. It may be a slippery slope fallacy, but some slopes just aren't worth testing.

[KingsGambit]

One of my closest female friends got married this year (we are both Christians). Rather than kick me to the curb, she introduced me to her husband. It's a good way of keeping everything above ground.

[mossrose]

I greatly respect your decision and the discipline to be a faithful witness. I also respectfully disagree that this honors Christ. As a rule, it keeps your nose clean from being accused of any impropriety and that is a good thing, but you are also making it clear to your neighbor that you will not enter into a healthy, platonic relationship based purely on the fact that he is not the same gender. By removing yourself and keeping a distance you may be unintentionally defining your relationship on gender stereotype and not seeing or treating him as an equal. Maybe this is your intention or not, I do not know your circumstance so I don't want to make assumptions on how you choose to be a witness. I just don't think this particular attitude is ideal.

We actually have a terrific friendship. Our neighbours are like siblings to us. They are also baby Christians, and there is just something in me that tells me to remember to not be in any situation, real or imagined, that could compromise a person. Perhaps it is my generation, but I believe that because our culture is so sexual, it is better to be aware of such things ALL the time.

There is no attempt, either intentionally or unintentionally, to define our relationship with our neighbours regarding gender stereotyping. His wife and my husband get along equally well under the same parameters. So, I appreciate your respectful disagreement, but I also respectfully disagree with you.

[mossrose]

Screw that. You're a seperate person last time I checked; your partner never has the right to determine who you can and can't associate with.

Chrs, a Christian husband and wife are equal partners. If one is uncomfortable with a certain situation, then the other should be sensitive to that and there should be a compromise. If one has to give something up, then that is not a problem, or shouldn't be. I am in no way saying that a wife or a husband should be a doormat, but there ought to be a respectful give and take between the two with all situations. And everything should be brought before the Lord with prayer in ALL situations so that there will be a meeting of the minds.

[yxboom]

We actually have a terrific friendship. Our neighbours are like siblings to us. They are also baby Christians, and there is just something in me that tells me to remember to not be in any situation, real or imagined, that could compromise a person. Perhaps it is my generation, but I believe that because our culture is so sexual, it is better to be aware of such things ALL the time.

There is no attempt, either intentionally or unintentionally, to define our relationship with our neighbours regarding gender stereotyping. His wife and my husband get along equally well under the same parameters. So, I appreciate your respectful disagreement, but I also respectfully disagree with you.

That you have such a great relationship with your neighbors is fantastic.

[mossrose]

That you have such a great relationship with your neighbors is fantastic.

It really is. We were greatly blessed the day they moved in.

[lao tzu]

If one is uncomfortable with a certain situation, then the other should be sensitive to that and there should be a compromise.

I can't tell you how many girlfriends would get bent out of shape about my socks matching, or my sweater inside out, on the way out the door.

But as a sensitive kind of guy, I can be convinced to change.