Love & Respect

Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs, a book by Emerson Eggerichs, makes an excellent observation. Many a woman feels as if her air has been cut off when she feels unloved by her husband, but a man is more likely to feel this way when he feels he’s lost his wife’s respect. And to make matters worse, women tend to disrespect husbands who don’t love them, and men tend to withhold love from wives when they feel disrespected. Eggerichs calls it the Crazy Cycle.
His book offers advice to couples who want to break out of their Crazy Cycle. Lots of books offer advice on how to show love, but few tell how to show respect to a loved one, and I’ve heard from a lot of men who confirm there’s an important difference.
I think it’s unfortunate that Dr. Eggerichs, a Protestant minister, chose to bolster his proposals for improving marriage with fragments of verses from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Many come from passages unrelated to his subject and appear to be wrestled into service of his ideas, which would stand quite nicely on their own. He’s also going to lose a few readers by emphasizing what he sees as the husband’s proper role as head of the family.
But don’t let those deter you if they don’t fit your religious beliefs. This book offers some important insights not offered elsewhere. Run them past your spouse and see if they’ll make your marriage stronger.
Love & Respect: The Love She Most Desires, the Respect He Desperately Needs. Emerson Eggerichs. Brentwood, Tennessee: Integrity Publishers, 2004. 240 pages.