Differences don’t mean death

We married when I (Dawn) was 19 and Eddie was 25. He was a 2 sport college player, football and baseball. I’ve been his biggest cheerleader since I met him. We have 4 grown children, 2 girls and 2 boys who are all married so now we have 8. We have grandbabies and they keep coming.  Yes, we are quite the crowd.

Eddie is an enneagram type 9 and I am a 2. We are both strong wing 1s. It’s been a huge help to us in understanding one another.

Differences? Yes!

I’m the spender. He’s the saver.

I cry over everything. He comforts and talks me off the ledge.

I throw away everything not tied down. He’s a saver in that way too.

I’m emotional. He’s a realist.

He can hide his feelings and be nice. I can rarely do that. I don’t wear masks well. 

I am a stick to the plan and plan almost everything. He, well, not so much.

But, we enjoy the same things which helps overcome some of our differences.

We are both planners and goal-setters.

We are both introverts and deep thinkers.

We love the beach and the mountains.

We both hate conflict.

We love Jesus. Main thing!!!

We both prefer dogs to cats although right now we have 2 cats and no dogs and given our choice we would live most days in our own world with a dome over us with our family and a few close friends. We love long walks, especially on the beach, reading, working out, sports and movies. Although, our movie tastes can be different. He does freaky and scary much better than I do. Give me comedy or romance or drama/adventure.

We both love to travel especially via cruise ships and Mexican food is probably our fave!!

Over the years we’ve come to believe that none of our differences are worth drawing a line in the sand. We may approach things and see things differently, but nothing is worth pulling us apart. And in fact, Jesus is the One who holds us together. Our differences keep us humble and help us realize the whole world isn’t just like us, doesn’t think like us and doesn’t act like us. Our similarities cause us to celebrate and have tons of fun together.

So when couples say, “we are just different and we can’t get along”, my response is “yes you can!” Learn to appreciate the differences. They once caused an attraction.