Amazingly, a hunger for respect is more right on than I ever realized. At work, my husband receives kudos for a job well done. His paycheck and bonuses verify his skill and dedication. John also works hard to provide and protect his family.
Respecting John is admiring his work, his character, and his care. It’s telling him that I appreciate these things and admire him for the man he is. It’s not talking bad about him to my friends or even behind closed doors. It’s ‘talking him up’ at home and in front of others and not second guessing his ideas. It’s honoring his opinions and decisions. (Which is tough, especially when my opinion differs!)
Basically, it’s my job as a wife to go against society and their “liberated thinking” and figure out how to unconditionally respect my husband and honor him.
But what does respect have to do with life-time commitment? Everything. After all, why would a woman want to stick with a man she can’t respect? And why would a man want to stay around when he is treated as the one messing up all the time? (Marriage is more than this, of course. We made a covenant before God, and God has called us to commit for life. We’ll talk about this too. But just think how we can transform our marriages, and our generation, when we strive to follow this principle.)
Of course God always knew what we’re just starting to understand. Check out Ephesians 5:33, “Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (NIV).
Yet unconditional respect, it seems, is something that generations of women have forgotten how to do.
It’s not that we wives purposefully set out to sabotage our marriages, but this is what lack of respect does. We tell our husbands we want them to be spiritual leaders and the head of the house, but then we make all the decisions . . . or question the decisions they do make. (Ouch! I’ve done this too many times to count.)
If we’re going to strive for “forever” 
we need to think of the ways we can make this thing last. This is part of the work and the planning. A good question to ask is: How can I show my husband the respect he desires?
In an effort to show my respect, I try to remind John I believe in his capabilities, take time to understand his point-of-view, and affirm his accomplishments. John appreciates it when I stop what I’m doing to give him a pat on the back when he’s manicured the front lawn, cleaned the garage, or built a set of bookshelves. When I first started doing it I felt like a mom talking to a three-year-old, “Great job, honey.” But from his smile, I quickly learned that he was energized by my praise.
The amazing thing is that when you do look for ways to show respect, and you do work at it, your needs are met, too. Because your husband is getting what he needs, he pours out his love in return.
Emerson Eggerich, in his book Love and Respect, calls this the Energizing Cycle. “Her love motivates his respect. His respect motivates her love.” I can confess, being in this cycle is indeed energizing . . . and fun!
So why is respect still a foreign word even to those of us who know its power? This is a hard one, since many times we weren’t raised seeing it lived To put it in a more culture-friendly term, another word for respect is admiration. And this is how Dictionary.com defines them both:
Respect: -noun. Esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability.
Admiration: -noun. A feeling of wonder, pleasure or approval.
What would a man give for a wife that respects and admires him? I’ve seen this lived out . . . his whole heart.
How can you show your husband that you respect him?
© Tricia Goyer author of Generation NeXt Marriage
https://triciagoyer.com/nonfiction.html#GenerationNextMarriage
I’m unmarried Christian gal and I’ve heard a lot of this ‘respect your husband’ talk before. But never has an author made it so clear. Reading through this it actually ‘clicked’ for me today.
Now I get what people are saying when they say this. Thank you so much for sharing this! 🙂
Deb
I think what attracted me to my husband in the first place was that he respected me. So it’s very natural to respect him. I don’t know why this is treated as a man’s need in the Love and Respect book–it’s something women need too!
I think there is a high tie-in between respect and encouragement. My husband really needs to hear my confidence in him…that I think he can handle the difficult situation at work or make the right decision for our family. It just makes his face light up.
Yes, I want my husband to know when we see each other at the end of each day that I love him and respect who he is!
Thank you, Tricia, beautifully said! Hugs, Rita
Thank you for this reminder Tricia.
Sometimes our respect comes in the little things we do without any words spoken.
For instance. Today the rain kept my husband glued to his desk doing paperwork. This afternoon I walked down just to give him a kiss, no comments, just a kiss. The second time I checked on him I took him a cup of hot tea and he still got a kiss before I silently left him to finish his work.
What wonderful sense you make, Tricia.
You said, “A good question to ask is: How can I show my husband the respect he desires?” Perhaps desires understates a man’s innate need for respect. He will do virtually anything to obtain it, including demanding it in ways that emotionally wound his wife. And such wounds prevent her from giving the respect that she needs to give.
What a vicious cycle sin has launched! Only God, loving our spouse through us, can break that destructive cycle.
Keep up the great work, Tricia.
Always your friend in Yeshua, God’s Anointed One.
Jim