Afternoon Delight

We'd like to welcome Julie Arduini of The Surrendered Scribe to Zest today as a guest blogger. I've known Julie for a year-and-a-half now and she has a tremendous heart for Christian marriages--she never ceases to amaze me--and today is no exception. *wink* And now, here's Julie...

When it comes to marital sexual experience, I tend to be a bit on the naïve side. In 1976, my parents listened to the one local radio station that played the same summer hit each hour, Starland Vocal Band’s Afternoon Delight. The station played that song so often there are still summer days when I’m visiting my mom’s and relaxing on the porch, I’m certain I still hear the song. Thing is, it was only very recently when revelation hit. That song must have been about the “nooner”!

eby_17.09.08 - 02 by brent_granby

Although a secular term, I’m here to encourage Christian wives to enjoy this term now listed in the Urban Dictionary. A nooner is defined as “sex done at lunch, your lunch break, or around noon.” It’s a Christian marriage’s best kept secret. The topic doesn’t come up in conversation often, but when it does; both the husbands and wives wear a sly smile.

I’m task oriented so when I worked in an office setting, noon meant time to eat a sandwich and maybe take a walk. Once married, my husband’s office was across the street. Our home was five minutes away. I realized through experience that men enjoy a nooner. When I spoke with my girlfriends (after someone else brought up the topic) we discovered our hubbies really like this idea. We also confessed once we skipped lunch and went home for dessert, we enjoyed the nooner too.

Google has 348,000 hits for nooner, but not a lot of information on how it affects a marital relationship between spouses, especially Christian ones. From my marriage ministry experience I know men have one folder at a time mind set. When they have the sex folder out, it doesn’t matter the time. It’s the only folder on their mind. Husbands generally like spontaneity more than their beloved, so a nooner fits the bill. There isn’t a lot of time, it’s not planned, and it’s a bit risky.

For those that work outside the home, it’s risky because the lunch hour is pretty much that, an hour. Sixty minutes for drive time, the nooner, the redress and check hair time before returning to work. Once back at work, your face will yield a glow that will make people think you went to the spa for a facial.

I remember nooner opportunities as a stay at home mom. Not only was I task oriented, I was paranoid. Naps were times for me to dash around the house and get things done. If my husband convinced me to pursue some afternoon delight, he had to turn on the baby monitor and lock the doors. Women operate with accordion folder type thinking and my mind was exploring the ways this experience could go wrong.

Sound familiar? If so, I encourage you to let your guard down. As a new Christian, still single, a woman prayed over me in very specific ways. She even prayed that I would embrace the thought that it was ok to “be the devil in bed” as long as it was comfortable (and legal) for both of us. I assumed Christian marriages were puritan and flat. Allowing God to broaden my mind and trust my husband with something different proved to be fun, an afternoon delight if you will.

I dare you to give a nooner a try, even initiating an encounter.

It will be our secret that your glow didn’t come from the spa.


Julie Arduini is a freelance writer and graduate of the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. Her work is included in Kathy Vick’s Run Like a Girl and James Stuart Bell’s October release, God Sightings. Both books are published by Howard/Simon and Schuster. To see her complete writing resume, please visit her at The Surrendered Scribe. She lives in NE Ohio with her husband and two children.