Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

Most of us are accustomed to hearing the phrase "unconditional love," but the phrase "unconditional respect" is likely more foreign to our ears. In Emerson Eggerichs's national bestseller Love and Respect, Dr. Eggerichs explains that women's desire for unconditional love is paralleled by men's need for unconditional respect. When wives refuse to act respectfully toward their husbands because their husbands treat them lovingly or when husbands treat their wives without love in order to get respect, the crazy cycle emerges. On the crazy cycle, both husband and wife fail to have their needs met and unloving and disrespectful feelings merely increase. However, when a husband gives his wife unconditional love and a wife gives her husband unconditional respect, their marriage will enter the energizing cycle, making it easier for both husband and wife to give their spouse the respect or love that he or she needs.

Dr. Eggerichs's book is one of the best I have read at explaining what goes wrong in many marriages and what men and women should do in order to achieve the best marriage possible. Christians who are attempting to follow the Biblical model for marriage will have a difficult time arguing with the concepts taught in Love and Respect, which are taken directly from the Bible in addition to being supported by Dr. Eggerichs's experience as a marriage counselor. This book not only explains women's desire for love and men's need for respect, but also teaches men six tools for making their wives feel loved and, correspondingly, teaches women six ways to speak respect to their man. One drawback to Love and Respect is Dr. Eggerichs's long-winded writing style. Throughout it's 303 pages, many of the concepts are repeated unnecessarily, which may frustrate readers who are capable of getting the message the first time and would just like to move on. However, the concepts I learned while reading Love and Respect were well worth the time it took to read it, and impatient readers could easily skim sections that seem to be rehashing old material. This book is a great read for both men and women who desire a better marriage and want to know what they can do to achieve that goal.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.