Apr 1 - Song of Solomon 2:3,6

my lover is like the

finest apple tree in the orchard …

His left hand is under my head,

and his right hand embraces me.

Song of Solomon 2:3,6

^NLT

 

I saw a study once. Someone, somewhere discovered that couples who kiss goodbye, tend to have happier, longer-lasting, and more fulfilling marriages.

 

That’s it.

 

Just kiss!

 

That was interesting, but the real shocker of the study, as Paul Bosch reported years ago in The American Organist, was that it didn’t even matter if the husband or wife “meant it” when they kissed. “Just a perfunctory peck on the cheek seemed to be enough — enough to make a difference in the quality of the relationship!”

 

Physical Touch is definitely a Love Language. (And would it surprise you that touch is generally more important to men?!)

 

Physical Touch includes holding hands and hugs. It includes pecking your husband’s cheek as he heads off to work and rubbing your wife’s feet, tired from a long day in heels. Physical Touch includes back rubs. It’s also a playful slap on her behind.

 

There’s Physical Touch when we sit side-by-side on the couch.

 

There’s Physical Touch when two tired bodies simply cuddle up in bed at night.

 

And then there’s sex!

 

Sex is two bodies … just the way God made them … doing precisely what God ordained for a husband and wife to do. And we call it “love” – “love-making”!

 

Indeed, we owe this gift of intimacy to our spouse. Really. It’s Biblical!

 

As the Apostles were teaching the first Christians to be faithful and loving to God, they also taught husbands and wives to be faithful and loving to one another, saying, “The husband should not deprive his wife of sexual intimacy, which is her right as a married woman, nor should the wife deprive her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:3). 

 

Nowadays, our culture focuses so much on sexual touch, that I’m going to close with a simpler reminder. Hug. Hold hands. Rub her feet. Cuddle up a night. Kiss hello and goodbye. And mean it!

 

Question: see below

 

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who hugs, holds hands,

rubs feet, and cuddles up at night

 

Questions:

Dating and Engaged: How are you balancing the Biblical call to chastity with the natural desire for physical touch?

Newlywed and Married: How important is physical touch to you and in your marriage?

Not Married: The Apostle Paul powerfully trumpets the honor and value of the single estate. But how are you managing your normal human desires for contact and relationship?