Thanks for reading. The term "Unconditional Respect" at first seems laughable to women. Shouldn't my husband earn my respect? We're taught this from childhood. However, when a wife insists that her husband earn her respect, she puts him in a lose-lose situation. If he must unconditionally love his wife as she demands and he must earn her respect as well, he is likely to just give up, and say, “I can never be good enough.” A wife needs to learn how to understand and use the word respect because, in truth, respect is what a man values most. By the same token, his wife’s contempt is what a man most fears. And no husband feels fond feelings of love and affection toward his wife if she seems to despise who he is as a human being. Though a wife displays disrespect to motivate a husband to change and become more loving, that is as effective as a husband withholding love as a way of energizing his wife to be respectful. Just as a wife does not soften when she feels hated, a husband does not become tender in the face of contempt. Does unconditional respect mean a wife must respect evil behavior? No! Just as a husband is to come across lovingly even though his wife is sinful, so a wife is to come across respectfully even though her husband is sinful. This does not mean a wife must say, “I respect the way you get angry and withdraw from me.” Such a statement is as silly as a husband saying, “I love the way you nag and criticize me.” This is not about loving or respecting sinful behavior. This is about lovingly and respectfully confronting disrespectful and unloving behavior. Unconditional respect, like unconditional love, is all about how one sounds (tone of voice and word choice) and appears (facial expressions and physical actions). A husband may not deserve respect because he has not earned respect, but a wife’s disrespect for him is ineffective long-term—and not biblical. No husband responds to disrespectful attitudes any more than a wife responds to unloving attitudes. Yes, if a wife is lovable, it makes it easy for her husband to love her, but the command of God to love one’s wife has nothing to do with her being lovable. And if a husband is respectable, it makes it easy for a wife to respect him, but the command of God to respect one’s husband has nothing to do with him being respectable. It's a choice. Thanks again for reading.