Her View

My friend Sandy slipped a package into my bag. 

“What’s this?” I asked.

“Love and Respect. It’s a book my husband and I have been reading and it’s changed our marriage.” Sandy, knowing I was getting married in a few weeks, was taking no chances. I was going to experience this marriage-changing book.

Even before Sandy and the secret package, I knew the truth that was taught in Sunday school classes and Wednesday night meetings all over the country. 

Women need love. 

Men need respect. 

And Roger and I have worked hard at both of those things in our marriage. But here is the other secret that I’ve learned over the past several years:

Both of us need both.

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My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. —1 John 3:18-19 (ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴇssᴀɢᴇ)

In our book Happy Habits for Every Couple, one of the projects we ask you to do for your spouse is to take something they don’t like doing off of their plate, demonstrating signs of true love. Here is how true love shows up in our marriage...

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Her View

I’m putting the leftovers away, and I think to myself, It’s been a weird day.

My husband and I have been missing each other all day long. 

I was up and out of the house before he got up.

He got home and had to go straight to his office to work; I was downstairs finishing up dinner. 

Barely ten words have been exchanged all day. 

This is not how a marriage is supposed to go. 

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