Introducing A New Contributor to Zest- Karlene

We are happy to have a new contributor here at Zest! Please join us in welcoming Karlene. At Zest, we always anticipate how God will encourage, exhort, (and sometimes rebuke?? ~smile~ ) us through one another. We are glad to be traveling this journey together. A warm welcome to Karlene and to you, friend, right where this finds you.

Worth Fighting For

After 20 years of marriage, I would love to say it’s all roses and champagne, or the stuff fairy tales are written about. But you know it would inaccurate because no marriage is free of sinkholes. For many years, I struggled with the intimate side of our relationship, not realizing that my childhood experiences and constant feeling of rejection from my parents – especially my father – would have anything to do with it. I simply couldn’t imagine I could be attractive, loved, or desirable to any man. Additionally, I was taught, sex is an obligatory act on the wife’s part. She doesn’t necessarily enjoy it. Sex is for the man. I learned the lessons well. It’s through the unlearning that I had to walk through briars and thistles.

It wasn’t until a couple years ago, when the Lord began to do a healing work in my heart that I began to enjoy intimacy with my husband. By then, his health had stolen from us this aspect of our relationship. Angry, frustrated, and discouraged, I raged against it in every direction you could imagine. It’s through this, though, that God has begun to show me a level of intimacy that comes through Him alone.

There are spiritual connections to be made both in and out of the marriage bed -- an intimacy I never dreamed possible.  True love is never easy, but it's always worth fighting for.

I intend to explore these, and more throughout my time with Adding Zest.