Returning Respect to the Women in My Life — Part 7
I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)
If this series has taught me anything, it’s this: living in my head made my world small and immediate.
In my head, I chase what was safe, logical, and manageable. I worry about how things look. I measure success in short-term wins — a good argument here, a diversion there.
But that kind of living doesn’t last. It doesn’t satisfy. And it doesn’t leave a legacy.
Because the truth is, the head can only deal with today. But the heart, led by God’s Spirit, is open to eternity.
In the verse from Ecclesiastes above, we find that God has put eternity in the human heart, but He has limited the mind so that it can’t fathom it. And it says this is an intentional “burden” God has created in each one of us. I believe it’s so we might seek Him from the heart. It is why we must follow the heart because the heart “understands” far more than the mind does. The mind cannot fathom Him, but the heart, led by the Holy Spirit, can.
What the Head Settles For
When I stay in my head, I care more about being right than being transformed. I care more about protecting myself than honoring others. I care more about comfort than calling.
And the result? Shallow victories. Temporary achievements. A faith that looks alive on the outside but is quietly shrinking on the inside. That kind of life doesn’t build anything eternal.
What the Heart Pursues
But when God’s Word moved from my head to my heart, I begin to see differently.
The heart doesn’t settle for temporary. It longs for what is eternal. It pushes me to ask:
- Am I living in a way that reflects Jesus?
- Am I building relationships that will matter forever?
- Am I storing up treasures in heaven, not just on earth?
Jesus said it clearly: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20).
Every act of respect, every choice to honor women as Christ does, every moment of courage and love — these are treasures that last. They ripple into eternity.
My Confession and My Promise
So here’s my confession:
I lived too long for what doesn’t last. I let my head chase comfort and control, and in the process, I missed out on eternal purposes.
And here’s my promise:
I will live from the heart, where God’s Spirit directs and empowers my steps. I will honor women, not just for today’s sake, but because it reflects eternal values. I will stop chasing what fades and start investing in what lasts forever.
Why This Matters
When men live in their heads, we waste years on small goals and shallow wins. But when we live from the heart, guided by God’s Word, everything changes. We love deeply. We respect fully. We walk courageously. And we leave a legacy that outlives us.
This is the end of the series, but it’s not the end of the journey. It’s only the beginning. Because moving from the head to the heart isn’t a one-time shift — it’s a daily choice. And every day, that choice draws me closer to God, restores respect to the women in my life, and through the Holy Spirit in me, builds something eternal.
When I return respect for His creation, I return to Him, and that will matter forever.
The heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of. – Blaise Pascal
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Our special thanks to a few of you who have responded to this series along the way:
“I will choose to assume that the reason behind any lack of respons is because our fellow fellows are the strong silent types! After your series, I want to believe these men are working on getting out of their own heads and bravely exposing their hearts to the Holy Spirit’s leading in how to creatively, consistently, and appropriately express their love and respect to all the women … that God has so graciously placed into their lives.” – Robert
“I measured what was safe to say instead of speaking from the heart.” – Kevin (currently separated from his wife. Pray for them. They have 5 children ages 6-19.)
“I’ve come to believe that in order to live as Christ wants me to live, I’ve gotta quit worrying if I’m gonna fall into sin and start being vulnerable enough to give up control to the Holy Spirit and trust that God will forgive any sin I might commit on the way to that kind of vulnerability. I found out that it wasn’t really giving up my manhood, it was my pride and arrogance that I was losing. And it’s changed everything: the way I love my kids, my wife and everybody else in my life!” – J.D.
These words from Robert are made more intense by the fact that he has recently lost his dear wife:
“As long as there is breath in both your wife and you, LOVE HER!
Simply LOVE HER!!
Dammit! LOVE HER!!!
It doesn’t matter if you’re on your honeymoon or have been married for decades, whether she is vibrant or if she is infirm, LOVE HER!!!!
And even though you may not feel like it – so what!! – tell her you LOVE HER!!!!!
“If you think it’s too difficult or not worth the effort, then think again!
Become creative.
Become decisive.
Re-read these Catches until you are man enough to get off your high horse, humble yourself, seek forgiveness if necessary, and vow to always be courteous, kind, complimentary, respectful and loving to all the women in your life.
Do not shirk your responsibility.” – Robert
John Fischer The Catch 
It is frequently stated that women are more attuned to God than men are and I have no reason to believe otherwise.
I just ran across this 2013 story of a man who was the sole survivor of a ship capsized under the Atlantic Ocean for 72 hours.
With the rest of the crew dead, Harrison Odjegba Okene, the ship’s cook, found himself trapped in an air pocket inside the overturned vessel laying upside down on the seabed.
His flesh was peeling off from exposure to the salty seawater, his only source of nutrition was a bottle of Coca Cola, the batteries to his flashlights burned out leaving him in cold darkness, and he could hear the sounds of fish (shark or barracudas) eating and fighting over something big, possibly his shipmates’ bodies.
As Okene got colder in the pitch blackness with the unnerving sounds, he played back a mental tape of his life — remembering his mother, friends, and mostly the woman he’d married five years before.
Okene kept reciting the last psalm his wife had sent him by text message, praying the prayer for deliverance, “Oh God, by your name, save me. … The Lord sustains my life.”
According to a newspaper interview he said, “I started calling on the name of God. … I started reminiscing on the verses I read before I slept. I read the Bible from Psalm 54 to 92. My wife had sent me the verses to read that night when she called me before I went to bed.”
Rescue divers responding to the scene were looking only for bodies, so when a hand appeared on the TV screen being monitored in the rescue boat, everybody assumed it was another corpse.
The rescue boat manager said, “The diver acknowledged that he had seen the hand and then, when he went to grab the hand, the hand grabbed him!”
On the video, there’s an exclamation of fear and shock from Okene’s rescuer, and then joy as the realization sets in.
Okene recalls hearing: “There’s a survivor! He’s alive.”
His rescuers used hot water to warm him up, then attached him to an oxygen mask. Once free of the sunken boat, he was put into a decompression chamber and then safely returned to the surface where he had to spend another 71 hours inside the chamber.
Does anyone think that, perhaps, Mr. Okene regards, respects, loves and honors his wife, Akpovona Okene, any differently now than before that day he sunk to the bottom of the ocean?
Men, Brothers, Guys! I appeal to you:
Please, today, right now look at and consider those women in your life with the wide-open eyes of Harrison Odjegba Okene.
And try, as best you can, to implement these recent heartfelt lessons from John and Marti to the best of your ability along with the Holy Spirit’s guiding.
Below is a video of Harrison Odjegba Okene’s rescue.
You can read the story of Okene’s ordeal and rescue by Googling his name.
Raw: Divers Find Man Alive in Sunken Tugboat – YouTube
Shalom, Peace… 🙂