Women’s Intuition

You’ve likely heard somewhere along the way about “women’s intuition”. It’s kind of a six sense that many think women have. Likely one of the first times in your life you experienced it was when you were trying to hide something from your mother which you never dreamed she’d ever know; yet, sure enough, she knew. Now that I’m older, I often wonder “is it an intuitive sense” or “an educated guess” as she knows the types of things she tried to get away with as a child. Hummmm…maybe a bit of both?

As a married man, I started to notice several years ago that it would come time for me to make a significant decision in my life and someone would ask me “what does your wife say?” Getting Lisa’s input on things was something I often did; however, this was somewhat of an emphasis of giving her advice an extremely high priority over the thinking of others. Now, I love my wife; however, when it comes to making business or financial decisions, I normally didn’t see that her advice was of more valuable than the “experts” I had surrounded myself. You know, your financial advisor says you should invest in tech stocks and your wife says, “honey, I just don’t feel right about moving our investments to tech stocks.” Seriously, because she doesn’t “feel right”, I’m suppose to ignore the “expert”?

So, now let’s fast forward about 15 years. Let me just say that when someone ask the question, “what does your wife say”, I thank them for asking. I have discovered that my wife does have a “sixth sense” that married with me will always be a very key piece in my discernment process. While I’ve called it a “sixth sense” special to women to this point, I don’t believe it only exist with women. In my wife, I attribute it to her being a Christ-followers and her listening to the Holy Spirit. This same Holy Spirit doesn’t differentiate between men and women; however, men and women may not “listen” in the same manner.

Yes, I do believe the reason “women intuition” has become a well known observation, is because women tend to “listen” better than men. While not always, most men are “doers” and they take little time to listen. Specifically, they take little time to listen to God and the Holy Spirit residing within them as Christ-followers. On the other hand, “most women” are characterized by being good listeners. Thus, they may find themselves listening to the Spirit more intuitively than men.

So, now let’s place this in the context of a marriage. Ephesians 5:31 NIV stated, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” So, if in a marriage, man and women are truly “one” than wouldn’t it make sense that God would use them to speak more clearly to one another than other “experts their field”?

To further paint the picture of this marriage partnership, I once heard someone use an analogy. He said, “God has gifted women with an intuitive sense . They will tell you there are troubled waters ahead. God has gifted the man with wisdom and discernment. He uses these gifts to navigate the troubled waters.” It’s only via the combination of the two that they are successful. She doesn’t know how to navigate the troubled waters and he would have not had time to develop a strategy if she hadn’t provided the “heads up”.

So, “women’s intuition” or “the Holy Spirit” of which women tend to listen more? I believe you can see what my opinion is; however, the key takeaway I’d like to emphasize today is “two will become one”. Yes, if you are a married couple who’s following Christ, your spouses “intuitive sense” must take an extremely high priority in your discernment process in life. In subsequent post, I’ll tell some specific stories of great leaders who have partnered with their wives to make significant decisions in their life and business which would have gone horribly different if they hadn’t.

Husbands…listen to your wives! Wives…expect your men to listen AND, navigate the waters which lie ahead for you and your family!