Love and Respect!

I wanted to share with you a really great conference that is coming to Charlotte. The Love and Respect Conference will be at Calvary Church on February 13-14. What a great way to celebrate Valentine's Day with your honey! From what I understand this is a great conference and men enjoy it just as much as women. The conference is led by Dr. Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs. If you're interested in learning more, click on the Love and Respect website at my favorites to get more information.

My husband just recently read the book Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. Tony is an avid reader and reads lots of different genres. He said this book "just made good sense". This book focuses on the love that a woman desperately desires in a marriage and the respect a man desperately needs! Wow. Pretty deep stuff. You may ask...how do I get to that point?

We must know how to respond! For example if you're in a conflict, the way you choose to respond will result either positively or negatively. Makes good sense! According to the book you could end up in what is called a crazy cycle depending on those responses. You don't want to go there. Our marriage was there and stayed there most of the time. I won't give all the details of the book away...give it a read!

This is one more thing I feel very passionate about! Marriages and families are being attacked..Christian families that were once strong coming apart at the seams! We were one of those couples and for several reasons. Unfortunately our marriage just seemed to have slipped away a little bit at a time. We grew apart. Each of us not really listening to the other or speaking with love and respect to each other. Not to mention that I was somewhat of a control freak...a perfectionist!

Then came the stress of a medical crisis that brought us to our knees, but not to the cross. It took two major jolts in our life...almost losing our daughter and almost losing our marriage for us to realize that Jesus Christ was not the center of our home like we proclaimed He was. It was all talk! He certainly was not the center of our marriage. From the outside looking in..looked pretty good. On the inside we were hurting, distant and lacking love and respect.

Another book by Dr. Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs that I highly recommend and a great discussion book is Motivating Your Man God's Way. It too focuses on how to meet your husband's greatest need...respect,using the words he needs to hear!

For so long I just flat out was clueless I guess as to what made my husband tick. This is probably one of the most helpful books I have ever read. At some point I will share more of our story. For now, just know that God is continuing to work a miracle in our marriage and family little bit by little bit...day by day. It is hard work, but very worth it. I love the words of the song "Love is not a fight, but something worth fighting for". Know how to fight!

Ephesians 5:33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband.

Embrace life and embrace the ones you love,
Ginger