An Explanation for Soulmates, Kindred Spirits, and Opposites Attracting

God is the totality of goodness, a more complete person than any human could ever be, encompassing all (good) aspects of what makes up personalities. What if our soulmate, our kindred spirit are those whose souls contain the same echoes of God, those same aspects of God that he instilled in our own soul? Our soul sees the same reflection of God in another as we see in ourselves and delights in the familiarity, bonds together because they are made of the same stuff. What if the reason why opposites sometimes attract is because we recognize those aspects of God in another that we are lacking in ourselves and we are seeking a complement, so that by joining our souls we can be made more whole, more fully understand the God we seek to know?

This can be a good thing. In soulmates and kindred spirits we find an understanding heart, someone we can relate to close to perfectly, who views the world as we do, and looks towards heaven with similar eyes. With our opposites we can learn more about the world, we can become more intimate with aspects of God with which we are very unfamiliar, our souls can become more rounded.

It can also be a bad thing.

Without God or with minds shut to his guidance, kindred spirits can unite with ours and determine that the rest of the world is weird or strange, we can convince each other God is just so and nothing else, we can focus together on some aspects of God and not realize there are others that we are completely ignoring.

Without God, when opposites attract, it may be that we are seeking to make ourselves more whole, more rounded, to fill a hole that we cannot fill because it is different and other than our self. But though with God this person can help make us more whole, can help to round us, can help to fill the hole inside us that we do not fully understand; without Him the pieces just won't fit, they may eventually jar and clash together because we each cannot understand why we're both still so incomplete.

Maybe “soulmate” should not only pertain to the kindred spirit types, maybe a mated soul can be an opposite. Kindred souls you can lay one on top of another and they will match, they're hard to distinguish as more than one soul so, in that sense, they are one. Opposite souls you put side by side and they help to fill in each others gaps, you look at them and see a completeness, in that sense, the two make up a one. As a lover, a spouse, I think there would be advantages and disadvantages to both, each would help you grow in different ways, each would challenge you in different ways.

In friendship, I think it is important to have both types, those you can comfortably blend with and those who help to fill in your gaps.

P.S. I know people are never fully kindred spirits or fully opposite spirits, no matter what there will always be little parts that do not match up...with whatever type you are matching.