ONE REASON WOMEN avoid approaching their husbands for a simple hug is because to ask for a hug is interpreted as a signal for sex…

When a man learns that a hug can be simply a signal for closeness and that his wife should be able to ask for a hug and not be groped, the couple has reached a new level of emotional bonding.  When a wife knows that her husband loves her for who she is without physical gratification, she feels connected.  A man, then, can learn that the greatest intimacy in a relationship is the disclosure of himself.  The relationship then becomes safe without the fear of rejection.  Paul Hegstrom, Angry Man and the Women Who Love Them: Breaking the Cycle of Physical and Emotional Abuse, 38

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it.”  Ephesians 5:25

Mike Benson