Should respect be given unconditionally or earned - I look to God for my answer

Nicola Watt felt challenged by God to behave more respectfully, but that doesn't mean tolerating being poorly treated.

I was burning rubbish in the fire one cold afternoon, my husband and I were separated, and I was knee-deep in blaming him. I came across forgotten letters between myself and an old boyfriend. Reading the letters stopped me in my tracks. Though written almost twenty years prior, they echoed with the same antagonistic phrases I’d used against my husband, long before our recent gauntlet of circumstances. "Father, He doesn’t deserve my respect," I had muttered many times. "Look at the way he treats me."

Seeing the pattern of disrespect with another partner opened my eyes and the excuses fell silent. In the heat of the flickering fire, the Holy Spirit convicted me my husband was God’s son and he loved him very much in spite of his current choices. "And, I don’t speak to him – or you – like that," he told me.