Are the Five Love Languages real? Researchers say, maybe not so much, but they can still be helpful. “For example, people will choose a preferred language if forced to in a quiz. However, researchers found that if asked about all five love languages on an individual basis — people rate all of them highly. The researchers also found that some important ideas, such as supporting a partner’s or spouse’s goals, don’t fit in the five love language model and that people who have the same love languages aren’t happier than other couples.”
How not to be a grumpy old woman: Melody Richeson begins, “My ninety-eight-year-old mother recently passed away after living with me for three years.

Love and Respect was published in 2004 and has been a massive seller in the Christian community—outpacing every book but Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages over these past fifteen years. Having finally read Love and Respect, I have mixed emotions about Emerson Eggerich’s blockbuster.

Eggerichs aims to balance what he feels has been imbalanced teaching on marriage, where men are lambasted for not being the husbands they ought to be while women are largely just told to be patient with their husbands. Drawing the foundation of his book from the conclusion of Paul’s admonition to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5:33, which calls men to love their wives and Christ loved the church and wives to respect their husbands, Eggerichs tells his reader that the key to marriage is husbands loving their wives well and wives respecting their husbands.

While the Beatles belted out, “All you need is love,” Eggerichs contends that “love alone is not enough.” Love is only half of the equation. Without respect, marriages will crumble.

This Week's Recommendations

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs