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No two people will agree with each other all the time. Conflict doesn’t mean the marriage is in trouble, and disagreement doesn’t mean you married the wrong person.
You’ve likely heard me talk about “when the issue is no longer the issue.” What begins as a normal difference of opinion can quickly leave both spouses feeling unloved and completely disrespected.
Courtship and the first few months of marriage is a unique time in a couple’s relationship. We are usually focused on our partner’s strengths and rarely aware of the weaknesses or quirks that all of us have.
In Galatians 5:14, Paul wrote, “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
As a young boy, around the age of twelve, when I learned of Darwin’s theory of evolution, something in me said, “Something is wrong here.”
Did you miss Part I of this three-part series? I recommend checking it out HERE first, and then moving on to Part II below. This week, I’m giving you an overview of the Love and Respect system. In this series, you’ll learn about the three cycles, the basic principles of Love and Respect and how applying them can improve your marriage.
Over the next few days, I’m going to provide you with an overview of the Love and Respect system. This overview will teach you its basic principles and show you how applying them can improve your marriage as you understand the 3 cycles: The Crazy Cycle; The Energizing Cycle; The Rewarded Cycle
What do we say to those who suggest Emerson applies the principles of Love and Respect to parenting as though he simply had to come up with something to say to parents and so used the same message? For example, one gal commented on Facebook in response to this post about the Family Crazy Cycle, which says: Without love a child reacts without respect, and without respect a parent reacts without love.
A woman asks, “How do you respect a man who has a habit of lying and going against everything the Word says. How does this work in an unequally yoked marriage? I have no respect for willful sin. I can respect free will choice, but not the sin and choices he makes to lead his family away from God.” The question you ask is a common one and I urge anyone who feels this way to read through what we have written in articles and in the book Love & Respect. They will discover that we never tell a wife to respect bad behavior.
An unloved child reacts negatively in a way that feels disrespectful to a parent. A disrespected parent reacts negatively in a way that feels unloving to the child. We might say that every negative action in the family has an equal and opposite negative reaction.
Incidents that can deflate or provoke our kids happen all the time. They wind up feeling unloved; we wind up feeling disrespected and like failures because we blew it again. Disappointingly, a small issue seems to grow into something much larger. When the Family Crazy Cycle begins to spin, the issue—whatever you are disagreeing about—is becoming The Issue. Remember, the first step in decoding is to discern what is happening at two levels:
Jesus makes an extraordinary statement in the Gospel of John, 14:9. He says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” I remember reading that and thinking, “Who does He think He is? God?” Yes.
In the book, Love & Respect, I spell “love” to a wife as C.O.U.P.L.E. and “respect” to a husband as C.H.A.I.R.S. Look at the list below and consider how you might express thankfulness to your spouse. As a wife, thank your husband for at least one of the ways he shows you love. As a husband, thank your wife for at least one of the ways she shows you respect.
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