[Berzee]

Hello 'ello! So...this is sort of the Big Heavy Burden that God has put on my heart. I read verses like 1 Timothy 5:2 (which tells guys to "treat the younger women like your sisters") and hold that idea up next to my own life and the lives of other guys around me.

Good news: Christian guys and girls are united in Christ and are family members forever! We share the same Spirit and have been put into each others' lives to truly care about and protect each other. For the rest of eternity we will be brothers and sisters in Christ!

Bad news: We don't seem to care about that. We're much more interested in dating, marriage, a-kissin' and a-huggin'. Good romancey stuff, but what about the billions of people you don't marry? Howzabout us Christian manly-types treat all Christian girls as pretty special sisters and precious gifts from God?

Not that I'm accusing YOU of being a selfish bum who can't think of a girl as anything but a potential mate or a genderless buddy. And I know a few men of God who are willing to work on being a brother-in-Christ to their spiritual sisters...I'm far from hopeless. =) But at this moment in time I am frustrated by the reluctant of the family of God to start acting like one. >_<

So yeah. =P I know that in my own life, having sisters-in-Christ who actually treat me like their brother, and who value that relationship for its intrinsic worth, have been a super crazy awesome blessing. And I would even say God has blessed them back through my own efforts to be brotherly. =T I hope that everyone can experience the same joy!

What are your own experiences of sibling-type relationships with Christians of the opposite sex? I discovered that being a plain old brotherly gentleman makes a lot of girls think you are a sort of creeper...so that it helps to be subtle and sneaky as you help them get used to the idea...but that's a whole 'nother story (which is why I wrote a book about being a ninja gentleman, after all =P)

I encourage you to respond to this post or at least think about this idea, even if it does not fit into the usual tracks of romantic advice-about-guys-and-girls that we are used to. =P