STONEWALLING

STONEWALLING

What does it represent?

Everyone knows what a “stonewall” is.  It is a wall or fence made of any type of stone.

The word stonewalling has a different definition but BOY ARE THEY RELATED.

The definition of “stonewalling” is:  Stalling or delaying especially by refusing to answer questions or cooperate.

We call it the “silent treatment” and it is mainly used by husbands.

BUT  WHY?!?

I will continue today using comments out of Dr. Emerson Eggerichs’ book on “Love and Respect”.   It is a must read for married couples.

We have discussed how when a wife criticizes her husband, she thinks she is helping him.

Prov.12:18 “…thoughtless words cut like a sword.”

The husband usually interprets it as HUMILIATION.

He says to himself, “I don’t deserve this kind of talk.”

When a husband “stonewalls” his wife, it is a WARNING SIGNAL.

Unfortunately, “stonewalling” aggravates her and causes her to criticize even more because she feels her assistance is being refused.

Even though she criticizes out of LOVE, he only hears DISRESPECT.

In Professor John Gottman’s extensive research, 85 percent of husbands eventually stonewall their wives during conflict.  A man’s blood pressure and heart rate rises much higher and stays elevated much longer than his wife’s.  Nothing escalates on a woman and she thinks that the conversation is increasing love between them.  The husband on the other hand sees an argument coming on and he feels he will lose respect.  At this point the husband will become quiet or walk away by himself.

If she asks him why he has walked away, he will tell her that he is trying not to react.

He is trying to do the HONORABLE and RESPECTABLE thing.

A wife gets so hurt by this action because she receives it as rejection and unloving.

STAY WITH ME LADIES!  If your husband is a pathological “stonewaller” then it could  mean that you at times have been a pathological criticizer and complainer.  Ouch!!

OUCH!!  OUCH!!   Okay, we got through that!   NOW WHAT?!?

The more the wife complains, the more the husband withdraws.  The more the husband withdraws, the more the wife complains.  WE ARE BACK ON THE CRAZY CYCLE.

Prov. 12:4 A wife “who brings shame“ on her husband “is like sickness to his bones” NIRV.

Have you been his mommy, his teacher, or his holy spirit?

Emerson says the next action from the husband is called the coup de grace.

Look it up girls and beware.  This is when he gets up and walks out as a bitter, hostile unloving human being and leaves his wife.

Then the divorce which is a funeral that never ends, BEGINS.

The coup de grace is the “death blow.”

Coup de grace means the blow that kills.

STOP CRITICIZING!!!  Stonewalling is the warning signal.