I am a married conservative Christian woman. I belong to a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, IL. There are three that I know of, so your chances of tracking me down are slight. I am writing to other Christian wives, married to husbands who may have a "kinky" sexual side. If this whole subject makes you queasy, then I suggest you check out now, instead of reading on and sending me some nasty note. I warned you!
My husband is in his mid forties, as I am, though he's a bit older. We have had a wonderful and exciting sex life for almost 25 years. Although, he has always been way more sexual, and (I would say) sexually needy that me. When we were first married, I participated in sex, but didn't see a great need for it. Though his drive began very high, mine has steadily been on the increase, as I have tried over the years to respond to the majority of his advances.
A little background on our professional lives might help. My husband is a seminary grad, however, instead of taking a call as a pastor of a local congregation, he ended up teaching at a Christian University. I am a nurse practitioner, working side by side with physicians in a local medical group.
Anyhow, back to the real reason for this article. In the last few years, my husband and I have been advancing in our sexual relationship. He has always been ready to explore his sexual side. But in the last 24 to 48 months he has been encouraging me to do more of this (which, I have to admit, I am not really all that comfortable with). I have started using marital aides (sex toys). I have begun to use vibrators and dildos, and I have to say I have found them to be very helpful in getting me to climax rapidly.
In addition, with my husband we have started to utilize differing forms of pornography, both written (erotica) and the film variety. At first I was so uncomfortable with this, and felt it was terribly sinful and awful behavior. However, after some time, I have begun to see its benefits. It can be instructional and it speeds arousal, and I have to remark here that it does this not just for my husband , but for me as well. Usually, we watch or read this material together just before we engage in our own sexual activities. Let me suggest that, to the extent that the sexual toy are helpful for me, the porn is a like this for my husband. Early on I thought we must stop this practice of viewing or reading such things, but then I thought, "Haven't all of my toys been an aid to better sexual expression with my husband?" What if he told me I had to do away with them?"
This realization, that his sexual needs may at times need boosting, just as my motor sometimes has a bit of a slow run up period, has really help me to see, both marital aides, as well as certain forms of pornography as mutually beneficial to our sexual relationship. In fact, it started me thinking, "What should be considered 'good' and what should be considered 'bad' within our marriage relationship?" Is our God ignorant of our sexuality? Certainly not! Is He aware that certain things can have these effects on us? Certainly He is! Is He bothered when we indulge in certain activities or actions? On this, I think it may just depend. He doesn't condone blatant sin for sure. However, even blatant sin has been dealt with by the blood of Christ. That is, "There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," as one of the apostles wrote. But, to "continue in sin that the grace of God may abound" seems a poor way to go. Indeed, and I would have to agree. But I have also begun to reconsider what sin really may be in this instance.
This brings me to the topic of adultery. Very literally, adultery is a husband or a wife engaging in a sexual union with someone who is not their spouse. It is a sexual infidelity or unfaithfulness. Jesus Himself, rightfully broadens the command regarding adultery to even include lustful thoughts. But before we begin condemning everything, we should first consider, that Jesus' motivation in saying what He said was to get the self righteous to despair of their own estimations of their goodness, not to try and get people to pretend to live a certain way, in order to save themselves. He wanted people to be so clear that they could not keep the commandments of God, by showing their true difficulty, that folks would look instead for a Savior outside of themselves.
Now, Jesus' words are still true. Lustful thoughts are still adultery and they still depart from God's perfect ideal of what humanity should be. Nevertheless, we cannot free ourselves from lustful thoughts, ideas, and images. This shows us the nature and depth of our own depravity. Even if we flee such things, then we develop a desire to have them again. And, if we successfully flee and don't desire these things, then we commit an even worse sin of religious pridefulness.
What can we do? Well, we can be realists when it comes to all manner of sin. We can take note that not everything we engage in in the different areas of our lives is pure and clear and untainted by sin. In fact, everything we do is tainted, even what we consider our purest actions. So, what then? Well, again we need to be realistic about our own nature, and we need to show respect for God's institutions like marriage, knowing that, though life is full of sin, it does go better when we follow God's prescriptions for it, to the best of our ability.
So then, when it comes to our marriage, we refrain from any wholesale adultery, while at the same time we each know that it would be impossible to root out all lust from our thinking. The trajectory of our sexuality is aimed toward one another then. I may get hot and bothered as I utilize my vibrating rabbit, but in the end I don't fixate on the rabbit, but instead how I can use my sexual energy and horniness to engage with my husband. My husband, and I, for that matter, my watch some explicit sexual scene in a movie, which causes and enjoyable engorgement of our members, but we don't seek out the people in the scene to have relations with. To the contrary, we look to each other for sexual fulfillment.