Edwin and Nancy Cole, explain a wonderful difference between the fulfillment in men and in women in their book "The Unique Woman", which I thought was eye-opening and clarifying. Maybe it will help you as well.
"A Biblical understanding of men and women reveals that each derives satisfaction from different sources. Men were created in Adam who was given stewardship over the earth by which everything would be replenished after its kind. To this day, a man's uniqueness is basically satisfied in relationship to his job, and his fulfillment comes from the reproduction process involved in it."
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
(Satisfaction in pleasing God and in serving the purposes you were created for.)
"Adam had charge of the garden and he loved God, but God has no peer. Therefore, Adam was "alone" because he had no peer. [Just like the one in whose image he was made]. For love to exist, there must be an object to love. God created woman to be Adam's peer, the object of his love. She was created as his 'help meet' or his 'completer.' "
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Image of God in man, by his oneness as well as his nature to love and be loved.)
"When God created woman, he took the rib out of Adam to make her. The rib was something symbolic of something taken out of Adam and placed in Eve. If God had created the woman out of anything other than that which was already in Adam, He would have created the woman inferior to the man. Woman was made from man in the beginning, but ever since then man has come from woman. With this, God shows the equality of men and women."
"God took the feminine, the nurturing, the tenderness of his own nature already inbreathed into Adam, and gave the woman those strengths -- leaving the man with the masculine, disciplinarian, the tough. Each were God-given strengths."
Genesis 2:21-23 So the LORD God caused the amn to fall into a deep sleep; and while he wassleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. The the LORD God made woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man.
(Not only did God take out a physical rib as part of man, but also a spiritual and emotional part of him and put it in the woman He made.)
"When God created the man, He called him Adam. After he created the woman and brought them together in the union of marriage He called them Adam. She is the complement to the man, and together they make 'one' or a 'whole'."
Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (With a part of him missing, he becomes one when he finds his lost rib/part and she finds the rest of herself in him and so they only take on one name as one complete being.)
"The man's greatest fulfillment is in reproduction (harvest of things or souls) and so is the woman's. [Because they are one.] A man's uniqueness is basically satisfied to his relationship with his job, but a woman's uniqueness is basically satisfied in relationship to a man."
Genesis 2:15 Man as steward using his part of the complete skill set (emotional, mental, spiritual and physical blessings). His uniqueness as part of the complete man in God (1/2) is satisfied in his special stewardship job given by God.
Genesis 2:23 Woman as the one who completes the man with her part of the package of skills and blessings (emotional, mental, spiritual and physical). Her uniqueness as part of the complete man in God (other 1/2) is satisfied in coming and completing the man, her special job given by God.
They both share the greatest fulfillment of reproduction/fruitfulness, given to them Complete Man (love giver and love receiver, masculine and feminine, but still mysteriously made one by God who is triune, but One God, Himself love giver and love receiver.)
See pages 21-23.
"A Biblical understanding of men and women reveals that each derives satisfaction from different sources. Men were created in Adam who was given stewardship over the earth by which everything would be replenished after its kind. To this day, a man's uniqueness is basically satisfied in relationship to his job, and his fulfillment comes from the reproduction process involved in it."
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
(Satisfaction in pleasing God and in serving the purposes you were created for.)
"Adam had charge of the garden and he loved God, but God has no peer. Therefore, Adam was "alone" because he had no peer. [Just like the one in whose image he was made]. For love to exist, there must be an object to love. God created woman to be Adam's peer, the object of his love. She was created as his 'help meet' or his 'completer.' "
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." (Image of God in man, by his oneness as well as his nature to love and be loved.)
"When God created woman, he took the rib out of Adam to make her. The rib was something symbolic of something taken out of Adam and placed in Eve. If God had created the woman out of anything other than that which was already in Adam, He would have created the woman inferior to the man. Woman was made from man in the beginning, but ever since then man has come from woman. With this, God shows the equality of men and women."
"God took the feminine, the nurturing, the tenderness of his own nature already inbreathed into Adam, and gave the woman those strengths -- leaving the man with the masculine, disciplinarian, the tough. Each were God-given strengths."
Genesis 2:21-23 So the LORD God caused the amn to fall into a deep sleep; and while he wassleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. The the LORD God made woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman', for she was taken out of man.
(Not only did God take out a physical rib as part of man, but also a spiritual and emotional part of him and put it in the woman He made.)
"When God created the man, He called him Adam. After he created the woman and brought them together in the union of marriage He called them Adam. She is the complement to the man, and together they make 'one' or a 'whole'."
Genesis 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (With a part of him missing, he becomes one when he finds his lost rib/part and she finds the rest of herself in him and so they only take on one name as one complete being.)
"The man's greatest fulfillment is in reproduction (harvest of things or souls) and so is the woman's. [Because they are one.] A man's uniqueness is basically satisfied to his relationship with his job, but a woman's uniqueness is basically satisfied in relationship to a man."
Genesis 2:15 Man as steward using his part of the complete skill set (emotional, mental, spiritual and physical blessings). His uniqueness as part of the complete man in God (1/2) is satisfied in his special stewardship job given by God.
Genesis 2:23 Woman as the one who completes the man with her part of the package of skills and blessings (emotional, mental, spiritual and physical). Her uniqueness as part of the complete man in God (other 1/2) is satisfied in coming and completing the man, her special job given by God.
They both share the greatest fulfillment of reproduction/fruitfulness, given to them Complete Man (love giver and love receiver, masculine and feminine, but still mysteriously made one by God who is triune, but One God, Himself love giver and love receiver.)
See pages 21-23.
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