Is a man’s greatest need in a relationship and marriage RESPECT? 

Emerson Eggerichs, bestselling author of Love and Respect asserts: “Women need love. Men need respect. It’s as simple and as complicated as that.”

The foundation for his platinum-level former book-of-the-year is a theorized gender difference he identified by posing this question:  If you were forced to choose one of the following, which would you prefer to endure…to be left alone and unloved in the world, or to feel inadequate and disrespected by everyone?

In his original sample of 400 males, 74 percent said that if they were forced to choose, they would prefer feeling alone and unloved rather than feeling disrespected and inadequate.

Eggerichs collected data on a female sample and found that a comparable majority would rather feel disrespected and inadequate than alone and unloved. Based on this data, Eggerichs concluded that a wife “needs love just as she needs air to breathe” and a husband “needs respect just as he needs air to breathe."

He went on to shape the argument that wives’ failure to show respect to their husbands is the reason that many marriages end in divorce.

He also asserts, “Husbands are made to be respected, want respect, and expect respect. Many wives fail to deliver on this and in his opinion, the result is that five out of ten marriages land in divorce court"

Of course, this assertion has been made by a lot of marriage counselors worldwide and a lot of men concur as well.

The Bible also says talks about the subject in Ephesians 5:22-33 (New International Version)

"22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything," it reads. 

The Bible continues in verse, "25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

How is this respect interpreted?

When does a man feel disrespected by his woman (wife or fiancée)?

What will a woman do, for her to be named a disrespectful wife or fiancée?

Do women really have this insight? And how is this communicated such that women and men are all on the same page?

Are we able to set apart assertiveness from disrespect in a relationship or marriage?

Join Edem Knight-Tay and her all men panel tomorrow on Saturday, June 11 at 6:15 am for this all important discussion...It’s must listen!!!