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If I ranked comments from wives to me, this one comes in close to the top: “My husband hurts my feelings.”
Countless divorcees have told us over the years that had they known the Love and Respect truth underlying the negative cycle they found themselves constantly on (which we refer to as the Crazy Cycle), they would never have divorced.
Husbands and wives are going to disagree . . . many times. They’re going to have arguments . . . many times. On top of that, husbands will disappoint wives, and wives will disappoint husbands, bringing reason for the offended or hurt spouse to broach a possibly sensitive or tough topic.
There is an axiom that I have used in my teachings for as long as I can remember that, to this day, I still fully believe in its simple but life-changing truth: “My response is my responsibility.”
When I was on staff at a church in the 1970s, we sought to serve widows and orphans. Though they were not all widows, we decided to lean into assisting single parents specifically.
I told this story because a while later, I was still struggling with my identity. Would I be left in the shadows as a nobody compared to all the students who excelled at everything way beyond me? Did I have value? And most of this centered on my relationship to God. Did God really love me? Was I fooling myself about how God felt about me? Was I really a reject in God's eyes as I struggled with my failings and and immaturity? There were times I'd awaken in the middle of the night wondering about how God felt about me. One such time as I laid there it was as though God Himself spoke gently to my heart, "If Evan Welsh, a mere man, could love you that much, would I love you less?”
As a child of God who has confessed your sins and chosen to follow Jesus, have you ever asked yourself what all exactly this means? How did this decision change your identity? How did it change your position, now, here on earth and in eternity? Because of your belief in what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you, it is extremely important that you recognize exactly how God the Father now views you and what this means for you personally.
By far, the most rewarding part of Love and Respect Ministries over the years has been the countless stories I have heard from others whose lives and marriages have been impacted greatly by the the studies, the conference, or some other part of the ministry. It is truly humbling to see how multiple generations within families and churches are being touched by the Ephesians 5:33 message of Love and Respect.
“Okay, Emerson,” you ask. “How do we keep the Crazy Cycle from spinning after one or both of us has said things that are getting it started?” The Crazy Cycle is: Without love she reacts without respect and without respect he reacts without love. Here are some basic steps:
Couples in Bible times didn’t use terms like Crazy Cycle, decoding, and air hose, but they still faced the same kind of communication problems people face today. And these women and men had the same basic needs for Love and Respect. One incident from the life of King David is a classic illustration of how a wife can stomp on her husband’s air hose. When King Saul gave David his daughter Michal to be his wife, the marriage appeared to start out well. First Samuel 18:20 tells us, “Now Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David.”
More times than I can recall, a wife has attended our Love and Respect Conference and connected the dots that applying respect to her son has also been deeply needed at home. There is even a Crazy Cycle of its own that spins between a mother and her son: without respect a son reacts without love, and without love a mother reacts without respect. I have heard many testimonies like the one below that show the life-changing results that come when a mother understands and begins applying respect to her son as well.
During the premarital stage for young couples, as well as the “honeymoon” stage at the beginning of their new life together, most couples receive a boatload of marital advice, from counseling, to books, to studies, to everyone and their mother giving them their best tips. It is not uncommon for many of these young couples swept up by love to believe that they “get it,” that they are fully prepared, and that they completely understand all they need to know to have the most successful marriage.
The Crazy Cycle can be explained as the following: Without love, she reacts without respect; without respect, he reacts without love. But what about “independent” and “self-confident” couples, who perhaps marry not as young as others and claim that their self-reliance will be an ally in their marital happiness? She doesn’t believe she actually needs him, which works out well for him, because he doesn’t want to be responsible for her. Could this actually be a loophole for staying off the Crazy Cycle? Without love, she continues on just as fine as she always has. Without respect, he pays the bills and tries to avoid unnecessary conflict.
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