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Browse through and read hundreds of articles on the topic of marriage
There are certain phrases we have been programmed to understand in a specific way whenever we hear them. For example, if someone says to us, “We need to talk,” we know there is bad news to come and we get in defensive mode.
Is your normally happy-go-lucky husband suddenly more sulky and moody? Has your typically fully engaged and intimate husband for some mysterious reason become more distant and even physically absent?
Do you have a specific sports team that you are outright fanatic about? Suppose you are a passionate Yankees fan whose white bedroom walls have navy blue pinstripes on them and your living room coasters have pictures of Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter, and other Yankees greats on them.
A couple attended the Love and Respect Marriage Conference recently, and several weeks later the wife wrote to me to share some of the reasons why they had attended, along with her frustrations for the lack of changes she had seen in him since the conference.
I have spoken often about the need to understand and appreciate God’s pink and blue design of women and men, respectively, because our differences undoubtedly go well beyond the biological.
Permit me to ask you a question. As a husband, in your deepest heart do you want to come across in an unloving manner toward your wife during conflict? 1. I do not want to be unloving when I disagree with my wife. 2. I want to be unloving when I disagree with my wife. As a wife, in your deepest heart do you want to come across in a disrespectful manner toward your husband during conflict?
Q: After 19 years of living on the crazy cycle and after months of counseling, I have no hope due to my husband’s narcissism. I talked and talked until I don't want to hear myself. He says I have driven him away and his "friendships" … his criticisms of me have left me wounded and hurt and nagging to just stay together when I know it’s God’s plan for this to not just exist but to thrive as an example to our children of His love. He is ready to file for a divorce because he says he has tried everything and he just despises seeing or hearing my voice...he has shut down. He said he is ready to have a woman to have fun with and to not fight with.Emerson says:
Meet Tony and Ginger. Be encouraged as they share how their broken marriage was restored. As Tony states, “Love and Respect is good, practical, down-to-earth advice.” Listen as they share how these principles helped them see each other in a new way and how they made a conscious choice to do things differently.
“Emerson, in a conflict with my husband he inevitably withdraws from me. He puts up a barrier to prevent me from emotionally connecting. He stops talking. What should I do?” I hear you. When married to someone who stonewalls, “withdrawals” are not worth it!Research reveals in intimate, committed relationships 85% of those who emotionally retreat and refuse to answer are men.
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