Week 7- Intimacy

This week we talked about intimacy. Intimacy is so important in a marriage. A marriage must include an emotional and physical relationship. It’s important to keep your physical relationship healthy. Our whole lives we’ve been taught to stay away from being intimate in a sexual way with another person before marriage. The moment we are married, everything becomes available. This is a scary feeling. I also know of some couples that struggle with it when they get married because they’ve been told it is bad their whole lives, so they feel guilty after marriage even though there is nothing wrong with it. Although it can be overwhelming, it’s a sacred thing. I love how the scriptures talk about intimacy and sexual intercourse. It is so different from the world’s view. Worldly standards have turned it into a casual thing that everyone does. That takes the seriousness and feeling of being special away. God meant for sex to be between a married man and woman. The world has also altered this. In today’s society, it is okay for a man to be intimate with another man, and a woman to be intimate with another woman. It is so important that we hold fast to what we know and what the church has taught. We may not understand certain things in this life, but God knows so much more than we do. He knows what’s best for us and everything will make sense after this life. 

For a woman to be intimate with a man she has to have the feeling of being safe, warm, and close. Those are emotional feelings, so if you have resentment toward your spouse, then you can’t fully be intimate with them. That is why it is so important to focus on your emotional connection as well. Intimacy does not just mean sexually. Intimacy also means simply feeling close. Having connections with people other than your spouse can have an effect on intimacy with them. I talked about friendships outside of marriage last week, and this goes hand in hand with this topic. When you are talking to a friend of the opposite sex it can damage your marriage. This is not because you have feelings for your friend, but when you talk to them regularly you are building a connection with them. It may not be a romantic connection, but it still creates something between the two of you. Your strongest connection should be with your spouse, and it gets complicated when you have connections outside of your marriage. This can cause contention, which may also affect being intimate with your spouse. The closeness you feel with your spouse can start to falter. It is so crucial that you put your spouse first, and friends are not your first priority. Relationships change after you are married. If there is something you are doing that makes your spouse upset, it becomes a problem for both of you, not just them. Marriage is about sacrifice. When you are sealed to your partner you become one flesh and one heart. You share everything with each other, including your bodies. I love that God tells us not to have sexual relations with anyone before marriage. It makes it so special when you share yourself with your spouse, and no one else. This is why the law of chastity is so important. It can create a barrier or conflicts between you and your spouse if one or both of you have been intimate with other people. I love the gospel and I am so grateful that marriage and intimacy  is such a sacred thing.