Love & Respect, part 2

Ephesians 5:33 says, "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

Respect part two. Wives you must respect your husbands. Again husbands are supposed to love their wives and we are supposed to respect our husbands. Well you may ask yourself, what does respect look like in a relationship? That question is what does respect look like in your relationship? Respect is different in every relationship. A man would rather be alone and unloved than disrespected. He values respect in a relationship over every other emotion or feeling. So how do you respect the man in your life? First, if you have no idea, you may want to ask your spouse. Find out what makes him feel respected and find out what things make him feel disrespected. Beware though! You may not like his answers, but LISTEN. Really listen to him. I suggest that you ask him when you have quiet time with just the two of you. And then practice what you've heard from him. Practice respect with your husband. Practice showing respect to your husband in front of others. Practice respect. Wife respect your husband.

Then beware again. When you begin to respect him, he will continue to love you. It is the crazy cycle that Emerson talks about: the husband needs to be respected in order to show love and the wife must be loved in order to show respect. So who breaks the cycle of unloving & disrespectfulness? Who cares. But wives if you waste time trying to wait on him to love you before you will respect him, then you are wasting precious time. If he dies tonight, will it matter who broke the cycle? I doubt it. But you will be sorry that you didn't take the first step. Break the cycle. Respect your husbands. Not only will you be loved, but it is a command from God- so if nothing else you will be obedient to God and that is reward enough in itself.

Respect your spouse.