YOU CAN BE LOVED AND STILL NOT BE RESPECTED
One of the statements that I've come to be known for over the years is that you can love a thing and still not respect it. In the same token, you can respect a thing but still not love it.
Ordinarily, love and respect should work together. One should be, because the other exists. Love inspires respect and respect sustains love. In reality however, sometimes these two are unable to find themselves in the same place. A few reasons account for this:
Sometimes we don't get what we want and we don't want what we get. Many people are not in the kind of relationships they wished for. They either found out midstream that they are in the wrong union and cannot back out for whatever reason they may hold or they had to settle for what they have now because what they wanted slipped out of their hand out of the fact that they were too late to propose, too blind to see on time or too spineless to take a stand. Now they're living their second best lives, but are determined to make the very best of it. Some are still trying so hard to convince themselves that the relationship, unfulfilling as it might be, is God's will.
The second reason for me is a more critical one. You can't give what you don't have. You can't give love to others if you don't have love for yourself, and you can't give respect to others if you don't have respect for yourself.
People who love themselves, for example, don't poison themselves with food and beverages that destroy their organs and shorten their lifespan. They know what their bodies can take and are moderate (not excess) with their lives. People who respect themselves on the other hand, carry themselves with sobriety. They are conscious of how they treat others. They have value for self and place a premium on self-worth and self-esteem.