**As sensitive topics are discussed, this podcast is not intended for small children.**
Susie welcomes back author and psychologist Dr. Juli Slattery of Focus on the Family, as well as author and speaker Linda Dillow. They examine how to maintain or restore true intimacy to marriages that are brand new, stuck in a rut, or on the verge of ending.
A first key point they examine is the faulty way many women in the Christian community perceive and approach intimacy.
“When we look at sexual intimacy both inside and outside of marriage, so often we’re making choices based on how we feel in the moment that impact that marriage relationship going forward.”
It’s important to learn to see past our desire for immediate satisfaction.
Also important is seeing such closeness as a shadow of a greater spiritual experience. Physical intimacy is supposed to give us a picture of the type of closeness God wants to have with his people.
Juli and Linda explain that they think many Christian women don’t have God’s perspective on intimacy. They’ve seen how the world devalues intimacy and a women’s body and they thus run from intimacy because all they see is the world’s tarnished version.
One genuine concern for many married women is a lack of emotional intimacy with their husband which can lead them to avoid physical intimacy. They suggest women take initiative to make time for emotional connection. They also encourage women to still engage in physical intimacy because it will help in producing emotional intimacy.
Another genuine concern is women who have baggage because of either abuse or sin in their past.
“I’m convinced that one of the biggest lies of the enemy is this: ‘Okay, when you come to Christ he cleans up different areas in your life but there’s one area beyond his redemptive healing power and that’s your sexuality.”
We must remember that God is the Healer, he is the Redeemer.
Key Scriptures: Hebrews 12:16, Ephesians 5:31-32
