"Love and Respect Doesn't Work!"

Love and respect may seem ineffective in challenging situations like adultery, but let's delve deeper. Consider three factors: impatience, misreading, and misapplication. Results take time, and misreading occurs when our spouse appears unresponsive. Misapplication happens when we show love and respect in ways they don't feel. We will address how to give it time, read situations accurately, and apply love and respect effectively. This Collection page challenges premature conclusions when the message doesn't seem to work. Give it a moment. Decipher. Adapt.

Articles

Can Sharing Love and Respect Transform What Seems Impossible?

Have you applied the message of love and respect, found in Ephesians 5:33, to your marriage and reaped the benefits of a fruitful and rewarding relationship with your spouse? If so, as you probably have done with a wonderful recipe or a highly effective diet, you most likely look to share this message with all of your married friends and desire that they, too, would discover this not-so-secret “secret” and have the flourishing relationship with their spouse that you have with yours.

Can Sharing Love and Respect Transform What Seems Impossible?

Marriage

min read

What if Love and Respect Do Not Work with My Spouse? Part 2

In part 1, we discussed Job and his disrespectful wife and how he was able to love her “as to the Lord,” despite her being a conduit for the devil. Now let’s turn to a biblical example of an unloving husband with a wife who found a way to still respect him. What about the Respectful Wife? What about the wife living with a man who turns everybody off?

What if Love and Respect Do Not Work with My Spouse? Part 2

Marriage

min read

What if Love and Respect Do Not Work with My Spouse? Part 1

Some people live in fear that as they seek to apply the Love and Respect message their spouse will not respond in like manner. When that happens, their fears are confirmed and they ask, “What do I do now?” Respectful Yet Unloved / Loving Yet Dissed Based on Ephesians 5:33 a wife puts on respect in obedience to God’s command with the hope that her husband will act on his part of the verse where God commands him to love her. She works hard at respecting his work efforts, his sense of responsibility to protect and provide, his personal strength and decision-making, his shoulder-to-shoulder friendship without talking, and his sexuality, yet he does not reciprocate with the love she needs.

What if Love and Respect Do Not Work with My Spouse? Part 1

Marriage

min read

What To Do When Your Marriage Doesn't Work

I hear often from discouraged husbands and wives who say their marriage simply does not work. They feel they have tried everything – even love and respect – and it didn't work. They are ready to give up. If this describes you, are you willing to try a new approach? But my spouse doesn't respond! What is your worst fear in marriage? Is it that you will do all you can to love and respect unconditionally but your spouse will not respond? If so, you are not alone in that fear. After all, it takes two, right? And if your spouse has already given up, there is nothing left to do.

What To Do When Your Marriage Doesn't Work

Marriage

min read

They Say, "My Situation Is Complex, Beyond Love and Respect" [Video]

What should we say to the person who dismisses the Love and Respect approach to relationships by declaring their situation is too complex and the message is too simple? First, seek to agree with the reality of difficult times. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power."

They Say, "My Situation Is Complex, Beyond Love and Respect" [Video]

Marriage

min read

What If My Spouse Doesn't Respond To My Efforts?

In Ephesians 5:33, the husband is commanded to love his wife and the wife is commanded to respect her husband. But what if your husband doesn't show you love when you show him respect? And what if your wife doesn't show you respect as you show her love?If you get no results from practicing the principles of Love and Respect, why bother?

What If My Spouse Doesn't Respond To My Efforts?

Marriage

min read

And They Lived Happily Ever After...Not Necessarily [Video]

One of our chief concerns at Love and Respect is not that people hear the message, important as that is, but that couples who attend a conference or read the book will go on to effectively practice love and respect in their daily lives. I realize each couple has this very same concern, of course. My heart goes out to those who tell me they “get it,” but aren’t able to consistently “stay with it.” They have learned that Love and Respect sounds simple, but it’s not so easy to do (maybe “unnatural” is a better phrase).

And They Lived Happily Ever After...Not Necessarily [Video]

Marriage

min read

The #1 Reason a Person Declares, “I Want to Do This Love and Respect Thing But Can't!" [Video]

Over the years, I have heard spouses complain, “I cannot do this love and respect thing.” They refer to God’s command in Ephesians 5:33. Husbands are to love and wives respect.My heart goes out to them. Sarah and I fall short as well.

The #1 Reason a Person Declares, “I Want to Do This Love and Respect Thing But Can't!" [Video]

Marriage

min read