Well, this is my 260th article written for Christian Nymphos. I have enjoyed contemplating with my readers the deep and mysterious ways of the kingdom of God. I have been challenged to allow God to shape me and use the many facets of this ministry to refine my character. I have been humbled by those who took the time to say “amen” to my words expressed here. And now, with this as my final article, I feel compelled to reflect on the highlights of the last four years of ministry here.

I remember:

• seeing the stats show that 1oo people had seen our blog.
• the time we had over 100,000 hits in a single day.
• the day we broke 1,000,000 hits.
• realizing that people were using rather general phrases about sex in search engines and our blog was being listed on the first page of links.
• getting emails asking us for interviews for everything from documentaries to international television and radio programs.

Some of my favourite articles that I wrote were:

• Giving Up on the Good Girl
• Dressing Sexy
• The Peasant Princess
• Shelley Lubben: A Porn Star Set Free
• The Balancing Act of Beauty

Some of the hardest articles for me to write were:

• Intimacy After Miscarriage
• Sexual Assault and Abuse
• Living With a Refuser

Our blog has evolved so much over the last 4 years. Remember the Position of the Week series? Or the Monday Missions? I enjoyed so many interesting and, sometimes, controversial discussions. What does modesty mean and how does it apply to me? Is masturbation really OK? You mean some Christian couples have anal sex? Can we just learn how to love one another even if we don’t agree? It’s been quite a ride and I’ve loved being a part of it.

I am so thankful to the women who have invested their time into reading here and getting involved in the discussions. I loved moderating comments from those of you who had proven to be respectful and helpful in your contributions so much so that I hardly had to even think about it before I approved your comment. There have been many, many of you over the years and it’s been great seeing people get involved and be a part of this community.

And I have loved the ladies I have worked along side of to make this blog happen. These women are amazing and they bless me all the time. They are there for me in situations when I can’t necessarily go to all my other friends. I still remember one night when my husband was out and I was feeling tempted to find erotica online, but instead I told Spicy Nutmeg, Cumingirl and the other friends in our circle about it. And there was one with a scripture to encourage me. Another one with a prayer of intercession. Another with a word of encouragement. All of them reminding me that I wasn’t standing alone against my sin. I was real and they didn’t judge me for it. I am blessed to be able to call them my sisters in the Lord.

I am thankful to my husband and friends who encouraged me in this ministry. Praying for me if I was doing an interview or telling me how important it was for me to be a voice encouraging women to embrace their sexuality in a godly way. I am humbled that the Lord called me to it for a season and used me in countless women’s lives. I pray that all the gold God released through me here would remain with those who caught it and that any words I spoke in carelessness, out of step with the lord, would fall off of you. May your marriages be rich and full and may you experience an ever increasing intimacy with your husband, that you may be able to say each and every year, “This year was better than last.”

I bless you and thank you, again, for the grace you have extended to me. Farewell, my friends!

December 15, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cinnamonsticks . Comments: 4 Comments

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

In December,  we celebrate our fourth anniversary of running the Christian Nymphos (CN) blog. What an amazing blessing it has been to us to hear testimony after testimony from women who are discovering our blog and finding it a source of encouragement that they could not find anywhere else. That is what has kept the fire in our bellies for the years that we have fervently been blogging our ideas and opinions each and every week on the benefits of a spicy marriage bed. God is so good.

This past summer, however, both Cumingirl and Cinnamonsticks began sensing that their efforts towards maintaining their ministry on CN were overtaking things that ought to have a higher priority. In prayerfully seeking the Lord for wisdom on what to do, the Lord released them from the CN ministry, but they would finish off the year with SpicyNutmeg.

With just the three of us remaining as the founders of CN we intensively discussed what direction to go in with the blog since two of us were released from the ministry and one still felt commissioned to continue ministering in this way to married women. Managing all of the content and moderation of comments on articles dating back 4 years takes a great deal of time and energy for one person, and so we have come to the following decision.

SpicyNutmeg is starting a daughter blog. The new blog will have threads connecting back and forth with CN so you will still be able to have access to both blogs, but commenting on CN will cease to be available on December 18, 2011. SpicyNutmeg’s new blog is called Monogabliss.  It will begin Monday, December 19.  The content will still be basically the same with some new features. The link is provided above if you click on the blog name.  The guidelines and formats will be very similar to what you are used to on Christian Nymphos. With permission, she will bring over some of the articles that we have written in the past and will link them back to CN. It is her hope that the Monogabliss name will be a more “user friendly” name that you will feel comfortable with sharing the information with other married friends and pastors.

Message from SpicyNutmeg:   First of all, I want to thank all our faithful readers for coming back day after day.  It has really overwhelmed me, but blessed me at the same time to see the number of people who visit this blog daily.   When we first began this blog, I never imagined that we would still be around posting after 4 years.  When the six of us first met and became friends, we started talking about how we felt that God was calling us to a Mission field.  One in which the church never seems to want to pass along the RIGHT information, and one in which our parents and society may have given us the WRONG information, and we were living our married sex lives in a bed of lies from the Prince of Lies…I didn’t think there was much I could offer since I was coming out of years as a refuser, but I felt God telling me that my story needed to be told, and there were other women like me who needed to hear the truth.  So, I plunged into this adventure hoping that God would keep me from sinking.

I truly miss my sisters in Christ who started this blog with us, but could not continue.  GingerMama, Peppermintgirl and Sugar and Spice contributed many wonderful articles in our early years.   I want to thank Cumingirl and Cinnamonsticks for their support and friendship over these many years.  They are not just friends to me, they are my sisters.   I want to thank all of you for allowing me to tell my story and passing along any tidbits of truth that I had.  You have blessed me more than you can know, and I am going to miss CN.  I hope that you will join with me on Monogabliss and help me to continue the ministry that God has called me to do.  I do not feel released like my sisters yet.  I think God has more work to do with me and for me.   Thank you for trusting complete strangers to help you make your marriage bed the best and the hottest it can be!

Message from Cumingirl: Saying “goodbye” is never easy, and this one is no different.  When we started CN 4 years ago, with all our energies and enthusiasm, I never thought that I’d be leaving 4 years later.  Much is different now in my own life, and so goes the winds of change.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to write on CN, and I am so thankful for my fellow spice sisters, whom I consider to be lifelong friends.  Watching our readership grow was fascinating, and seeing many of you come together on our forum to laugh together, cry together, encourage and support one another, was inspiring.  Thank you all so much for following us and commenting and asking questions.  May our Lord continue to heap blessings on your marriages for years to come!

Message from Cinnamonsticks:   Thank you for the way you have become involved and invested in our blog. It means the world to me to know that I had a part in encouraging you. It is my passion in life to help others and I have appreciated the opportunity to speak into your life. It humbles me to consider how many women have been positively impacted because of my contribution here. Even though the Lord has released me from ministry there will be a time of grieving in my heart as I let go of this ministry. It has been a significant part of my life for a long time and God has used it to refine my character. Thank you for all the times you said “Amen” to my articles or left a comment saying how much CN has helped you. I will forever remember the platform I was given here to share my heart honestly.

December 5, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: 21 Comments

We have given permission for the following request to be published on our blog.

Hello Christian Nymphos readers!

My name is Kelsy Burke and I am a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. I am conducting research for my dissertation that explores how Christians use the Internet to talk about issues related to sexuality. If you are 18 years or older, I’d like to ask you to participate in my study by completing an online questionnaire.

You don’t need to disclose your real name, and no identifying information will be recorded. Your participation is completely confidential and after you submit your responses, they are stored securely in a password protected database. There are no risks or benefits for participating in this study.

Here are the details:

The questionnaire will take you about 15 minutes to complete and will ask you basic demographic questions (e.g. age, race, marital status, education). It will also ask you questions about your religious affiliation and participation, Internet use, sexual practices, and sexual attitudes.

Here is the link to the questionnaire. In order to access it, you’ll need to enter the access code: intimacy

* * * * *

I would also like to conduct one-on-one online interviews with C.N. readers who complete the questionnaire. If you participate in an online interview, you will be compensated with a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate.

The interview will last between one and two hours and will take place at a time that is convenient for you on a secure instant messaging forum that is accessible only with a password. I will ask you a series of open-ended questions about how you use the Internet to find resources about sexuality and a few questions about your beliefs about sexuality and your religious faith.

If you are interested in participating in an online interview, please email me at kburke.research@gmail.com or contact me via my website after completing the online questionnaire.

I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

Kelsy

—

This research study is being conducted by Kelsy Burke, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. It has been approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board and is being overseen by Distinguished Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, Kathleen Blee. For more information about Kelsy, check out her website, www.kelsyburke.com.

November 2, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cinnamonsticks . Comments: 5 Comments

Just as last year, we are taking a break for the summer, but we do have some things planned for a few days each week for you to enjoy over the summer.

Each Monday, Cinnamonsticks will be finishing off the book study over Love and Respect, and that will conclude on June 20th. Starting on June 27,  Spicynutmeg will be introducing a new series on Mondays called “Introducing….”.  She wrote a poll asking which women of the bible you most relate to, and there seemed to be some unfamiliarity with some of the women in the poll.   So she will be doing a simple “Introducing….” article each Monday to replace the book studies for the summer.  (Book Studies will resume after the Labor Day.)  Each week, she will introduce one of the women from the poll, so that you can learn about her and where to find her in the bible to get more information on her.

The polls will continue throughout the summer, but will move to Wednesday until after Labor Day.

Sentence Starters will remain on Fridays throughout the summer.

We will not be answering emails this summer.  It is our intention to spend the time with our families while our children are out of school.   We will let you know when we will be taking emails again after Labor Day.

There will be things to do and material to read 3 days a week during the summer, and we will start up a new schedule starting after Labor Day when we will be refreshed and renewed and raring to go!  Thank you for understanding and have a wonderful, blessed summer!

June 1, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: 5 Comments

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We have posted some important information regarding emails on our new EMAIL INFO page. Please take the time to read it. The tab for this page will be at the top of every CN screen, (and on the left side bar) along with the tabs for all of our other pages. Thanks.
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March 23, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cumingirl . Comments: 6 Comments

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Just a reminder that our book study on:  Sacred Sex by:  Tim Alan Gardner will be starting on Monday, January 31st.  If you’d like to join us then grab yourself a copy of the book and be prepared to discuss chapter 1!

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January 24, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cumingirl . Comments: Comments Off on *Book Study*

“Is there a similar website that you are aware of for men?”

We get asked this often.  So let us take a minute to make some recommendations for all of you men out there.  Ladies, if your husband is interested in a website devoted to men, then email him this post 🙂

First of all we’d like to remind everyone of the men’s forum on The Pure Bed. It was created to be a place where husbands could talk about intimacy and marriage issues together.

Another new blog that we’ve recently become aware of is Ignite Her Passion.  It is written for husbands by a husband.  The tag line says:  Helping Men Bring Back the Passion and Romance in Their Marriages. He isn’t vulgar but he tries to be upfront and give helpful tips regarding intimacy and marital issues.

Better Husbands & Fathers is another blog out there that is aimed at husbands.  It isn’t a blog solely on intimacy, but it does incorporate some of those aspects and discussion is welcomed!

Last but not least we will again recommend The Generous Husband.  It is a blog written by Paul Byerly, co-founder of The Marriage Bed.  He gives tips on ways to become a generous husband using the five love languages and more.

We are always on the lookout for other blogs and websites that we can recommend to our readers.  We try to update our resource page and Hey Men page to reflect these sites as well.

January 12, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cumingirl . Comments: 4 Comments

We are so excited to be beginning our fourth year, here on CN!  We have read all of your comments for suggestions, and although we cannot do everything everyone wanted, we hope that the changes we have made are viewed as positive, encouraging, and helpful.

We have increased the number of recent posts on the left of our blog to reflect the last 15 articles published.  That will give you a history of almost the last month’s worth of posts.  We have also increased the number of recent comments on the right side of our blog to fifteen as well.  That will show you where most of the conversations are taking place at that time.

We will be keeping our Tuesday Polls and Friday Sentence Starters. We love how these two features encourage interaction on your part!  It’s nice to see everyone’s different perspectives, and sometimes these things are just plain fun to participate in 🙂

Wednesdays will still be our open days.  We use Wednesdays from time to time to make announcements or let you know about something special that has come up.  Thursdays will be a day for regular blog posts from us. Sometimes these will be topics of our own choosing and other times they may come in the form of a Q&A because of an email from one of you. We might even occasionally take Thursdays as an opportunity to direct you to previously published articles where we have new insights or there has seemed to be an influx of participation in the comment section.

That leads us to Mondays…and our newest feature that we hope many of you will help us with (and a couple of you requested).  We will be starting our own book study group! We will announce ahead of time which book we will be reading and discussing, and then we’ll give you a couple of weeks to get your hands on a copy of it!  Once the book study gets underway, you’ll be asked to read a chapter or two each week, and then come back to us on Mondays for discussion on those chapters!  We three will take turns picking books, and Cumingirl is going to be starting us off this year with a study on the book:  Sacred Sex by Tim Alan Gardner.   We’ll start off the study with a discussion of the Introduction and Chapter 1 on Monday, January 31^st.  That gives you four weeks to get yourself a copy of the book and read the first chapter!

Book Studies are only successful if people participate, so go ahead… let your hair down and join us on Mondays to voice your thoughts on what we are reading!  We are hoping for lively and intriguing discussions.  You ladies are already so uplifting and encouraging with one another on the Prayer Request page and on other articles, so we are hoping for some nice participation here too!  Of course the discussion can and will continue throughout the rest of the week as well, but the following Monday we’ll be adding chapter 2 to it!

If you have any follow-up questions you can ask in the comment box here, and we’ll try to answer or clarify things for you.  We’re excited about this New Year and we hope that you are too!

January 3, 2011
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cumingirl . Comments: 6 Comments

Today marks the beginning of our Christmas break, but it’s also the day we celebrate our three year CN blog anniversary. We are amazed and humbled by how many people read our blog everyday. We appreciate this platform that God has given us to encourage women in their marriages and, specifically, in their god-given sexuality. It’s so fun for us to see the community of women here encouraging one another. For so many of you we hardly have to even read your comments before approving them because we know you always have godly input to add to the discussions. So today as we celebrate this anniversary milestone we thank you for all your support and involvement.

We also want to wish you the merriest of Christmases and pray that you encounter the love of God in a new way this year as you celebrate the birth of our Savior. May your times with your loved ones give you joy and peace. And for those in difficult circumstances either financially or relationally, we pray that God would provide for you in surprising ways.

Merry Christmas and all the best for you and yours in 2011!

December 20, 2010
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: cinnamonsticks . Comments: 7 Comments

We wanted to keep you abreast of what will be happening with the blog as we reach the close of the 2010 calendar year.

The last two weeks of December (Dec 20-31), we will be taking a vacation from the blog.    It is a very special time for us and our families, besides the fact that it is a really BUSY time for us and our families.   During this time, we will be in discussion and prayer over what God would have us do with our ministry in the new year.  We are receptive to ideas for the new year.   If there are any topics that you would be interested in reading about, feel free to list them below in the comment section.    If you agree with a topic that is already listed, be sure that you comment on the comment, not add a new one.  This will make it easier for us to see which ideas have the most interest.    The blog articles will continue on Monday, January 3, 2011.

We want to wish all of our readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We have been truly blessed by God in this ministry and we are grateful to our readership who has come back again and again to read our articles and to contribute to discussions. May God bless you abundantly during the holiday season.  Never forget your gift of Salvation born unto us this holiday season.

Blessings,

Cumingirl, Spicynutmeg and Cinnamonsticks

December 1, 2010
Categories: About the Blog . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: 25 Comments