Sexual Intimacy

In the world we live in today, sex is something that people are used to throwing around. Many people do not consider it to be a sacred thing, or something that should be saved within the walls of marriage with the person you love. More and more people are downgrading it, and making it out to just be something they do, with random people. That is not what God intended for the use of sex. Sex is what we use to build sacred bonds between a man and a woman, also to procreate. When it is used selfishly, I believe that it devalues the true meaning of it.

On the other hand, it is not only sex that will keep a marriage together. In the book Lauer and Lauer, we read about a man named Hank. Hank got married when he was in his early 30s. He knew that his marriage would require a lot of work because there were so many differences between him and his wife. He was asked the question, “what do you have in common?” he answered by saying, “we have great sex”. That is basically all his marriage was built on. Within the next year, Hank and his wife ended up getting a divorce, because sex itself couldn’t save the marriage. When people think they should get married just because they are great in bed, they are strongly mistaken. The walls of marriage require much more than that bond of intimacy. It requires trust, communication, understanding, love, patience, and so much more. Hank’s marriage didn’t have all of that, which is why it crumbled down. He could not save it just with the basis of how intimate him and his wife were. With all that being said, sex  is still such a vital part in a relationship. When you have all the other factors to keep a marriage strong, a good intimate relationship is vital in keeping that bond strong between a man and a woman. It adds that extra oomph to keep the relationship unbreakable.

Sex is a very physical thing, and we are human, so we crave it. We crave feeling needed and feeling loved by the opposite sex. There are four stages the body responds to sex, excitement, plateau, orgasm, resolution. Excitement is the first stage and is a result of some kind of psychological or physical stimulation. A person can be excited by many things, such as someone touching your body, reading erotic literature, remembering a time of a previous sexual experience, or even someone looking at you seductively. Excitement may or may not lead to the second stage, which is plateau. Plateau is when the body is about to reach orgasm, and is getting ready. It is a continual high level of arousal. Some have short plateaus, and some have longer plateaus. It just depends on the person and how long it takes them to reach orgasm. Orgasm is the third stage, and is when there is a discharge of the sexual tension that has been built up in the second stage of plateau. The third stage takes the least amount of time in all of the stages, because it is only a few seconds long. It involves intense feeling and usually muscle contraction. Following orgasm in a male, there is a stage called the refractory period, where he can no longer have additional orgasms or ejaculation. This is part of the resolution stage in males. Resolution, the fourth stage, is a return to the state of being sexually unaroused. If the individual has been highly aroused but did not orgasm, the fourth stage will take longer to be over.

Sex is an amazing thing. God created us with the purpose of being physically intimate with someone we love. It is very important to not abuse this gift, though. Men and woman need sexual intimacy in their life.