We have been talking in Sunday School about the differences in men and women, and how those differences affect the marriage relationship.  One example is that women want men to understand their emotional response to a problem without rushing in to try to fix the problem.  (For a better explanation, you can get the book For Men Only.) 

 Jason explained it to the guys this way:  If your wife sees something and she perceives that it is a bear, and she believes that bears eat people, her emotional response is fear.  Now guys typically want to go out and shoot the bear OR convince her that no its a tree stump not a bear or guess what bears are herbivores and eat berries not people.  But what she wants is for him to come sit and hold her hand and tell her he is sorry the bear frightened her, 

 In other words, start with the emotional response, not with the problem.  Sounds simple enough for us gals, but apparently this is mind boggling for the guys.

 So tonight I was overreacting responding irrationally emotionally to a perceived problem, and Jason said "You are mischaracterizing the situation."  Yep, that's what he said.  I am married to Noah  Webster.  But here's the clincher.  He said "There's no bear here."

And in that statement, I knew he understood me.  I knew he  recognized my emotions even if he didn't understand or agree with them.  And you know what, that was enough.

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