Can love exist without respect.
I ask this because New Girl and I were just chatting and she told me she knew people who said that they loved each other but didn't respect each other. She could no more understand how that was possible than I can! What do you think?I'm just passing by the way because I had to ask this question!
Comments (68)
Nope, love is caring more about the other person's happiness than your own, and you can't do that without respecting them.
Can love exist without respect?
It can and it does.....though invariably is unhealthy and toxic to all involved.
I hope all is going well with your new lady....
The whole family rose up against him and told him if he even thought about contesting it we would hit him with the cruelty stuff and take everything he had ever worked for. He behaved. And the Mother-in-law? she lived happily ever after! No not really, but at least is able to do her own thing. I have to say I admire how you have put your life back together knowing how difficult that must be.
But love is beyond this. Love starts with admiration. No values and no comparison. Is just being present without any thoughts.
When no love then respect is required.
so yep, I reckon it can.
Agree...respect and love go hand in hand
May you your good times continue
I had not previously thought of respect in terms of my own life but yes, that is when it all fell apart, she lost her self respect, I won't be boring with detail, took to medication and fell into the abyss. I should have recognised what was happening and pulled her back before it was too late but I didn't. My fault entirely.
I've made three blunders in life..Does that make me less of a woman?..Nope.
Does that make me less of a fabulous mum?..Nope
Does that make me less of a friend?..Nope
We learn as we continue our journey in life it doesn't matter how old we are our journey in life is a continous life lesson I'm still bloody learning.
It's weird because my adult son is yet to miss a beat any decision he makes in regard with any thing in his life he aces it he's bloody fantastic.
My son call's in or call's me from any where in the world thanking me as a mum for educating him with the tools I gave him to deal with in this big bad world yet me myself I've stuffed up a couple of times go figure cause I can't
1540s, "to regard," from Middle French respecter "look back; respect; delay," from Latin respectere, frequentative of respicere "look back at, regard, consider," from re- "back" (see re-) + specere "look at" (from PIE root *spek- "to observe").
Meaning "treat with deferential regard or esteem" is from 1550s. Sense of "refrain from injuring" is from 1620s. Meaning "have reference to" is from 1560s. Related: Respected; respecting. To respect the person was "show undue bias toward (or against) based on regard for the outward circumstances of a person;" hence respecter of persons, usually with negative, from Acts x:34, in the 1611 translation.""
"Google defines respect as "a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements." This definition seems correct but, if that's all we have to go one, we're limited in our capacity to truly appreciate the great power of this virtue in our relationships. Do we genuinely respect everyone we meet? Certainly not at first!
How many people do we simply write off when our first impressions don't evoke feelings of admiration? How many people have we known for some time but still don't respect? The etymology of the word brings light and healing to this broken truth about our relationships. From the Latin, spectare means "to look," and re means "again." Respect means "to look again." When we find nothing to admire at first glance (or second, or third...) we must look again, and again, and again, until we find it. That's what it means to respect someone.
It's such a sad state of mind to claim we don't like people. To not like a person is a travesty. Isn't it actually certain things about people we don't like, often trivial things at that? Sometimes it's more serious or even dangerous defects of character (Jesus calls us to see his face even in brokenness). Sometimes there's real personality conflict, or even malice. Humility bridges this gap, and allows us to look again. Everyone has something unrepeatable and beautifully unique to offer, and we'll find it if we maintain respect. Keep looking.
How often does this failure to get to know people warp and diminish our experience of Church? We make rash judgments that we simply can't have relationships of friendship with certain people, and we fail to look again. Catholicism calls us beyond this superficial level of looking at our brothers and sisters. Christ is in our midst, but we must grow in the virtues necessary if we want to see him. Respect is one such virtue.
But I Have Called You Friends
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I've been reading this book by Mother Mary Francis, and it inspired me to write this post. Every page is another gem on the art of Christian friendship. How beautiful the Body of Christ is! May we all have the humility to forgive, and the respect to look again. This notion of friendship is the seedbed of deeper personal conversion, the remedy to our broken relationships, and the foundation for what JPII called "the civilization of love."
Believe me when I say I'm preaching to myself! As Church, it's our duty to challenge one another in areas such as these. It matters. So often grace turns all of our presuppositions and expectations on their head, and this is a perfect example. Rather than sitting around the metaphorical water cooler pointing out flaws and disappointments in people (which only blinds us), let's try and find something to admire instead."
I wasn't alive during WW2, is this what most people did back then? I admire peace.
I have a bad habit of doing that but not on purpose
I haven't read the other comments, apologies if this has already been covered in detail.
My myself, I know that I can't love someone I don't respect (or the love went when I lost respect) and I wouldn't want to be with someone that doesn't respect me - I think if someone claims that there is love in that scenario, it's more about possession than caring.
Er ...... Keepers yes I bit mine as well. I thought I best.
Have to walk the dogs now, back in a while.