Category: Basic Training

As I conclude this 3-part set of posts on Opposite Gender Friendships, I will provide additional guidance on friendships with females, specifically whether your wife should be your “best” friend. In part 1, I suggested that mixed-gender friendships serve different purposes for men than for women. We have different needs and communication styles that risk sexual attraction. For that reason alone, we must be cautious with any male-female relationships outside of marriage.  In part 2, I gave a brief history of male-female friendships. I also suggested that men need women in their lives as much as women need men. With diverse relationships, men especially learn how to balance our masculine and feminine sides in ways that help us become better men, husbands, fathers, and friends. In this final post, I wrap this subset up with guidance on your relationship with your wife. Why Men Need Male Friendships While making my

My last post about Opposite Gender Friendships suggested that male friendships serve a different purpose than female relationships and we need to be extra careful due to the risk of sexual attraction. In this follow-up post and the next, I provide guidance on the two questions I posed in the last post: 1) Can men have relationships with women who are “just” friends? and 2) Should your wife become your “best” friend?  But first, more about the importance of male friendships. Men Need Better Friends Earlier this year, I started making my case for The Year of Better Male Friendships since there is an epidemic of loneliness due to the decline of friendship, especially among men. I’ve been using excerpts from my book, Get Out of Your Man Cave: The Crisis of Male Friendships, to describe the importance and characteristics of male friendship, which supports my theory that every man

As I begin to conclude this series about Better Male Friendships that started in January, I need to provide a word of caution of male-female friendships. Throughout earlier posts, I’ve made my case for the type of friendship that every man needs; the deeper, authentic kind of brotherhood that I call a GodBuddy. That said, I also believe that men need women in their lives: as wives, siblings, friends, and co-workers, since they can help us become better men. But this poses a couple of big questions:  My next few posts will provide some guidance on these questions. Male-Female Friendships Must Be Different Most people agree that relationships are complicated. The reality is that friendships with the opposite sex must be different, especially once you are married. As I wrote in a post from a few years ago, there are significant Differences Between Male & Female Friendships. Relationship counselor, Dr. John Gray