Husbands And Wives Need To Help Each Other Become Successful Series

Shakespeare once said, “My honor is my life, take honor from me and my life is done.” I really think if you asked a person if they could have all the money they wanted, but would have to live in total disrespect, just about everybody I know would take honor. Respect is incredibly powerful. We want that, more than almost anything.

Let Me Share 15 Practical Ways to Show Honor and Respect to Our Mate:

1. Not Correcting or Contradicting Our Mate

I remember being at a dinner engagement with a couple, where I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so pathetic. Nearly everything this guy said, his wife corrected… I mean everything! If he said, “Monday night” she’d say, “no, it was Monday afternoon” or if he said, “it was a blue car” she’d say, “no it was turquoise.” After a while I was thinking to myself, pleeeeeeease stop! I’m going to go crazy here! Of course, we should not do that to any one, but for sure not your husband or wife. I also encourage us to not make snide remarks to or about our mate. Sarcasm is belittling. When we’re speaking to our mate we ought to speak to them as though we were speaking to the most respected person in our life. Who do you respect more than anybody? How would we treat them? Let’s say you have a great esteem for your Pastor or father or some successful person, how would we treat them? How would you talk to them? That’s how we should talk to our mate. We should never allow ourselves to talk to them in any way other than with the highest amount of respect.

2. By Amplifying Statements

What I mean by that is this. Let’s say our husband or wife is telling us a story, and as we get a chance, we validate their words. For example, perhaps my wife is talking about making a pie and she says, “I put some lemon rind in the filling.” I might say, “Oh, that pie had an amazing taste.” What am I doing? I’m amplifying and validating what she’s saying. So, not only is she telling the story, but also now I’m respecting her. She feels lifted up and honored. If I’m telling a story to my friends about fixing the car she might say, “My husband is so wise, he always takes care of things on the car.”

3. By A Joyful Countenance

If we want to honor our mate, if we want to bless them, and praise them in front of others we must have a joyful countenance. Just smile. Much research has been done over and over again about the benefits of smiling. Did you know that smiling actually helps create happiness? How can we smile and create happiness? Well, for one thing when we smile, others smile and that fosters an atmosphere that is contagious.

Growing up my dad would tell me, “Son, I want you to practice smiling. This is how I do it. I will be all by myself driving the car and I will practice smiling. I’ll be telling myself you’re going to smile.” One day I was at the gym smiling (purposely trying to do so), and I was amazed at how many people started smiling back. Have you ever look over at the average person sitting in the car next to you at the stoplight? The expression on most peoples faces looks like they could be an axe murderer! A smile in public says, “I’ve got a great husband or wife. My mate makes me happy.”