First Post: Learnin' about Love and Respect

As if succumbing to the clutches of Facebook (which even my husband has joined-because it really is addicting and useful!) weren't enough, it seems time I should start my own blog. I can't guarantee that it will be updated regularly, let alone have anything interesting to read when I do post, or even that it will have any readers, but I hope it'll be an interesting journey, and that along the way, I might actually be able to post something worth reading and worth contemplating.

I thought I'd begin by sharing about a book Dan and I have been reading lately, Dr. Emmert Egglerich's Love and Respect. I think it's a great book for anyone who's married, soon will be married, or thinking about being married. We've been reading it together before we go to bed at night, so needless to say we get a "ton" of reading done each day, as in usually a grand total of two pages before one of us is already snoozing (don't worry, from exhaustion from the day, not boredom). I think it'll be a while before we get through it.

Great as it is though, I can't help but have a little fun at the book's expense. Dr. Emmert's whole point of the book - that in marriage, women most of all need love and men most of all need respect - is both biblical and logical. But a few of the analogies he has used to drive that point across often end in me giggling and Dan rolling his eyes (we've also enjoyed his frequent use of the phrase "Crazy Cycle.") There was one analogy in particular that we found especially comical.

I quote:

Picture, if you would, the wife having an air hose that goes to a love tank. When her husband bounds in and starts prancing around like a ten-point buck looking for someplace to graze, he steps on her air hose. This does not make for a happy camper. In fact, if she can find a baseball bat or some other weapon, she might just whack the big buck and tell him, "Get off my air hose; I can't breathe." Simply put, when her deepest need is being stepped on, you can expect her to react negatively.

...To keep the deer analogy going (oh goodness, no) suppose the wife, a lovely doe, starts tromping on his air hose with her sharp little hoofs. As we have seen... the wife may have had a good reason to prance all over her husband's air hose, but what's going to happen? As his air hose starts to leak because of all of the little cuts her hoofs have made in it, the husband is also going to react because his deepest need (respect) is not being met.

But all kidding aside, we do recommend the book and think it's provided some pretty useful insights into our own relationship and other relationships we've observed.

If you actually made it to the end of this post, congratulations for sticking it out. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll be back!

Stephanie