Marriage Advise | Marriage Communication

Marriage Advise

I have been teaching a class on marriage at our church. Each Sunday I have what we call an interactive time. This is a time where I pose a question to the class and they resond with answers and opinions.

Last week the question was:

Ladies, how would you like your husband to show you love?

The ladies answered:

Listen with interactive dialog and do not try to fix them, unless they ask for help or opinions.
Put words into action.
Have patience.
Be transparent.
Make them a priority.
Being a good provider.
Spontaneous acts of love without expectation of sexual intimacy.

Men, how would you like your wife to show you respect?

The men answered:

Greeting them after work.
Not talking them down behind their back.
Ask their opinion and advice.
Slow to anger.
Serving them.

The discussion that followed was revealing. Men want respect and women want love. After giving us one of the most important passages in the Bible on marriage, the apostle Paul gives us the formula for a happy marriage in Ephesians 5:33 where he says "Nevertheless let each individual among you also love his own wife even as himself; and [let] the wife [see to it] that she respect her husband."

You can read more about these issues in the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. Click here to purchase the book Love and Respect.