Welcome to another monthly roundup of marriage and sex resources with links to recent posts, as well as:
- podcast episodes with Knowing Her Sexually and Sex Chat for Christian Wives
- my monthly post over at KHS Ministry (for husbands)
- any new resources I’m involved in (from online seminars to new site store products)
- resources and products I can recommend for your marriage and sex life
- news and events I need or want to share with y’all
- biblical inspiration for the upcoming month
Scroll through to find what you might have missed or your next great resource for marriage.
This Month on the Blog
- Why Isn’t Sex Like What You See in Movies?
Sex scenes in movies (and TV) have given us a wrong impression of what sex is really like. Here’s the truth…and how it’s better! - 9 Tips for Making a Sexy Bucket List (+ 50 Ideas!)
Have you considered making a sexy bucket list with your spouse? Here are tips for how to do that, plus 50 ideas to spark your imagination! - Dependence or Independence in Marriage?
On this Independence Day, let’s talk about how independent or dependent spouses in a marriage should be. Perhaps it’s about interdependence.
From Sex Chat for Christian Wives Podcast
- Episode 99: Valentine’s Day – Sex Chat for Christian Wives
- Episode 100 – Sex Chat for Christian Wives
From Knowing Her Sexually Podcast
- Episode 24: When She Says No to Sex – Knowing Her Sexually
- Episode 25: What About Sex During Her Period? – Knowing Her Sexually
My Post at KHS Ministry
Click the image below to read.
A Few Great Reads Elsewhere
- Heaven Made Marriage is launching a new online resource, with a great price! Intimate Connections eCourse — Heaven Made Marriage
- My ministry partner, Chris Taylor, explains to husbands what emotional safety and why it’s so important to wives. What Is Emotional Safety? (and What Does It Have to Do with Sex?) – Knowing Her Sexually
- Another post from Chris, but for wives with ways to stoke sexual interest. Nurture Your Sexual Desire – Honeycomb & Spice
- Do we really need another book on sex? When it includes a fresh angle, why not? Here’s a snippet of what’s to come: Our Weird Relationship with Sex and Nudity | Gary Thomas
Recommended Resources & Products
My Bible is my phone. Or rather apps on my phone. Yes, I know there’s value in reading a tangible page, but I have one nearsighted eye and one farsighted eye, and it’s a whole thing with glasses and what-have-you, and a scalable screen is just easier.
But lately, I’ve been really enjoying YouVersion reading passages to me! They don’t use computer-drone voices, but real ones and varied too. I also discovered Bible studies, like Dr. Doug Weiss’s “Sin of Withholding.” And they have a version of the app for kids. If you’re interested:
(Nope, I’m not affiliated with YouVersion. Just a personal recommendation.)
I could make a lot more money if I…
I’ve started many sentences that way, just before explaining why I don’t sign up with an ad network, guarantee results, pretend fixing a troubled marriage can be done in “these 3 simple steps,” etc. But it’s always been important to me to take my responsibility as an influencer (my children would laugh at me calling myself that) seriously. Which is why I vet products and organizations as best I can before recommending them.
That’s even more true with Faithful Counseling, because I used it myself in Spring 2020. You can hear the ad and audio testimony I recorded for our Sex Chat for Christian Wives podcast below:
If you need to access quality counseling from home, check them out.
What J’s Up to These Days
Given how the Covid-19 vaccine distribution is going, I’m starting to dream of traveling and seeing people in groups in the latter half of the year. In the meantime…
- I missed several posts here on my blog, as I was once again dealing with health issues and Winter Storm Uri. As to health, my diagnoses now include a mild case of rheumatoid arthritis as well as obstructive sleep apnea, for which I now get to use a CPAP. (Frankly, at this point, I’ll wear anything from a Hannibal Lecter mask to the Mandalorian helmet if it means I can breathe at night!) But I’m on the mend and eager to get back to full productivity.
- On the Winter Storm front, let me first say that we had one full week of true winter here in Southeast Texas…and I’m so over it. I’ll take our hurricanes instead; then, at least when our power goes out, it’s a nice cool autumn and not 17°F (-8°C) outside. My family fared well, though, with only a few days of power outage, a quick trip to a family member’s for an overnight stay (they had power), and no plumbing problems at all.
- I would like to do more speaking for MOPS groups, many of whom are meeting virtually. If you’re interested in hosting me online, you can find me on the MOPS Speaker Network here or email me.
Biblical Inspiration for the Coming Month
(This was supposed to be short inspiration but quickly turned into a Bible study as I dug deeper and deeper and got more and more excited by my discoveries! Sorry.)
I’ve been learning a lot lately about Genesis 1:27; that is, the construction and connotation of the original Hebrew words in that verse. What I grew up reading was: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (KJV). But if you really break it down, the passage is something like:
So Elohim (plural of “God’) created the human in his own image (or likeness), in the image (or likeness) of Elohim created He him. A male and a female, He created them.
Genesis 1:27 paraphrase
A few interesting points:
- The word for God in Genesis connotes “gods,” but the verbs used with it are singular. It would be like saying: Gods is real. So right from the beginning, the mystery of God—plural yet singular—is evident in His (Their?) Word.
- God didn’t create man and then woman as an afterthought. Rather, God created humans, or humankind as now translated in some versions, as a likeness of Him. The word is singular here, though, as “the human” and “him.” (It happens to be a masculine noun.)
- Speaking of image/likeness, the word for that, tzelem, was later used as the root for the Modern Hebrew word for camera, matzlemah. A camera is a device that produces images, thus reflecting the original. That’s a good sense of the meaning here—that we reflect God’s identity.
- Finally, the Hebrew words for male and female are zakar and neqebah. Zakar derives from the word point or tip, while neqebah derives from pierced or hollow. That’s not what the words mean, just their derivatives. Still, it’s interesting that the roots note the body differences between male and female.
What’s my takeaway? Essentially, the complementary nature of man and woman can in part be seen by physical differences that fit together in the marriage bed but also in how they together reflect God Himself—both His masculine and feminine aspects and the plural coming together as one. This coming month, let’s reflect on how our marriages reflect God in His fullness and unity.
