Love and Respect

I am listening to another sermon from Elevation Church entitled Visionary Love, Dream Sex, Do It When You're Old, and something he said got me thinking. The pastor, Steven Furtick, was talking about how women should be clothed in love while men should be clothed in respect. As he said that I thought to myself, "yeah, thats true, but sometimes I want to feel loved too!" Then something hit me. Why do I want love more than respect? Why am I supposed, as a man, to have respect rather than love? Surely the two are not completely separate, but why respect for the man and love for the woman? It is because of leadership. As the man I am the leader in a relationship. I am the leader spiritually, emotionally, physically, you name it I am supposed to lead. Yes, my wife is supposed to love me (no I'm not married yet, I just listen to a lotta sermons haha), but more than that she is to respect me as the moral leader of the relationship. Respect puts a responsibility on my shoulders that love does not, and that is what scares me. That is the reason I am afraid of respect and want love instead: I am afraid to lead. Although it might take a different form in other guys, I think that a lot of men I know have a fear of leading. Well, the truth is, you can't be a boyfriend or a husband if you don't know where you're going. You can't lead anyone without a destination. And if you're not confident enough to lead someone to where you're going, you aren't ready to lead a woman in a relationship. I might not be a lost cause. I might be on the road to recovery, but I have some work to do before I "put a ring on it."